Guardian Year Two
by shenandoahok
Summary: James Olsen—hero—fights against monsters, flying locusts, and the Tin Man in the Land of Oz. He battles against the King of Oz to save the Munchkins—descendants of Ptah, the god. JJ's powers grow as Kara berates him for using lethal tactics in a fight.
1. Chapter 1

The Guardian: Year Two

Prologue

Celestial Kingdom: 1.75 million years ago…

The Celestial Kingdom, a large vessel that stretched over two miles, set virtually quiet after Ptah took an extended reprieve from his duties. The ship flew in Kryptonian space in a time when Ptah had just imbued the Kryptonians with great power. Orion, a disc-shaped silver saucer, about twenty-four inches across and six inches deep, carried the mind of an ancient Siren, a creature of immense power and Ptah's first wife. Her powers were the ability to traverse space with a mere thought, telepathy, healing other beings, and telekinesis-all powers Ptah gave her when he placed her mind in the powerful flying saucer made out of amazonium, an indestructible metal forged in the realm of the gods.

Orion focused her attention on three things during the early days of Kryptonian greatness: Neo Star, Krypton, and the Speed Force; Neo Star because two Kryptonian young men took over the planet with brute force and the Great Mother wouldn't allow her to intervene; Krypton because she took note how they acted since she and Ptah injected them with the Superman formula; the Speed Force because it was continuing to wrap itself around every living thing throughout the entire universe; it replicated everything throughout the universe an infinite number of times creating the multiverse.

In those days, Orion spent most of her time focusing on the Speed Force because she still had hope Ro'Dan, one of Ptah's paramours was still alive after being swept up into the entity when they brought it online. Ptah didn't anticipate the power of the nascent entity, and when he flipped the lever, it pulled Ro'Dan into its wake. It happened so fast that he didn't have the time to pull her back, and within seconds, the Speed Force snatched her into its light. Ptah looked on in disbelief, but since the Speed Force was an unstoppable energy force, he couldn't intervene in its initial launch.

A sudden thought-Ptah's illegitimate children-entered Orion's mind for a moment and caused her soul to weep because she knew what it meant for a god to bear children with lower lifeforms; it always meant death to the lowly creatures, and it was an idea that Orion couldn't fathom. But when the Speed Force stole Ro'Dan, it sent her children into a telepathic rage, and it took all of Orion's energy to suppress it and to keep their thoughts from attracting the attention of their father, Ptah.

The oldest child, Po'Darro La, longed for his mother the most, and during his weeping, he was able to contact Orion telepathically. His thoughts raged onward and caused her an insurmountable amount of pain. He desired to travel into the Speed Force to search for his lost mother, but she wouldn't allow it. She feared Ptah would find out that he had children with a lowly Trilobite if they weren't discreet in their activities. For a god to have children with a lower life form like a Trilobite was one of the greatest sins within the realm of gods, a sin that risked the life of the Trilobite and her offspring.

When the Speed Force sucked up Ro'Dan in its spiritual wake, Po'Darro La was only fifteen-years-old, a genius and a masterful shipbuilder. But when he heard what happened to his mother, he begged Orion to give him a powerful vessel like no other that would allow him to enter the Speed Force. She flew up to the young man, and said, "There's no reason to believe she made it, Po. The Speed Force is a prison for gods and your mother is only a lowly Trilobite."

Weeping, he asked, "Is Ptah my father?" It was a simple question, but it caught Orion off guard. She didn't expect such a query since she never uttered a word about his patriarchal parentage.

"Why would you ask such a question?" She asked calmly. It was obvious that she didn't want him to know for obvious reasons.

"Because I possess powers beyond that of my people," he said calmly, "I know things that I shouldn't know. I see things that others don't see. Is Ptah my father?"

She sighed for a moment, and then said telepathically, "He provided the genetic material that created you and your siblings. He loved your mother as he loves me. When he lost her to the Speed Force, it hurt his soul, but he couldn't do anything about it. Saving the Kryptonians was his main mission. If he knew you and your siblings existed, he would be obligated to terminate your family."

"Why does it concern you if we live or die?" He asked with a grimace on his face. "You've walked with the gods. We consider you as a god."

"Because Ro'Dan and I shared the same mind. My heart hurts when you guys hurt," she snapped, "Ptah took a copy of my brain and put it in a dying Trilobite, restored her life and loved her as if he was loving me. In a sense, I consider you my children and must protect you at all cost."

"Then give me a ship so my family and I can search for my mother in the Speed Force?" He asked.

"No," she said, "The only person who remotely understands the entity is no longer in the Celestial Kingdom. Once I understand how the Speed Force is growing and wrapping itself around every planet in the verse, I will pass the information on to you. Without understanding the entity, you'd fare no better than Ro'Dan."

After ten years of studying the Speed Force, she gave Po most of her findings, and during those years, he built a thirty-man ship called She Ah Vog that loosely translated into "For Mother" in the ancient language of the gods. It was a beautiful vessel that was half the size of the Phantom and had the ability to travel at warp two. The hull of the ship was mixed with a metal called temporal steel, a metal that allowed the ship to open up a hole in time when charged with an electrical current. It was the same metal in Ptah's ship, the Phantom.

Current Time…

Blake Whitney, a middle-aged Channel Four News Anchor, walked up the steps of the prestigious looking building. Two, large concrete lions met him at the entrance way, and when he walked up to the door, he waved his right hand across the sensor, and then it slid open. When he walked into the chambers, eleven members of the local chapter of the Libertine Council were already seated, and then when he sat down, all twelve members were in attendance. Behind him set a statue of a bare child with a reef on its head. At the head of the table was Athena Kyle.

"Downing Chemical already paid the Vulcan one hundred and fifty million for cleaning up the spill in Freeland," Blake Whitney said with a grimace. "He plans on paying the man four hundred million dollars in total. It hurt a major contributor to our organization."

Athena Kyle scoffed at the idea of Downing paying the Vulcan. "This Vulcan has already caused our organization a sizable amount of damage," she said in a calm voice. "Do we know who's under the mask?"

"No," he said, "The video footage we have of him is scrambled."

Council member Anthony Wagner said, "He put Brad Winifred in prison. Within a week, he was killed."

"Blake, you need to start running hit-pieces on this Vulcan," Athena said, "Drag his name through the mud. Make him seem greedy to the viewership for taking money for superhero work. Compare him to Superman, Supergirl, and any other superhero who doesn't take money for services. We need to do whatever we can to shame this Vulcan into quitting."

"It's going to be hard because he paid the city of Freeland the money Downing owed them," he said, "It's going to be hard keeping this contained because it's public record."

"I don't care," she said, "The public is a bunch of idiots, and they'll believe what you tell them to believe." She paused for a moment, and then asked, "He cleaned up that mess on the same night that meta killed all those cops. He was there, but he didn't stop him."

"Honestly, the Vulcan deals more with otherworldly creatures," he said, "When the other world creature came to Earth last year, the Vulcan fought him."

"Do whatever you have to Blake. I want this Vulcan discredited."

Meanwhile…

James apartment—a large executive domicile—set across the way from Kara's apartment, and when he stood on his balcony, he could see into her living room with his x-ray vision. He had some old boxes that set directly in front of his couch with pictures of some of his relatives from Kansas. He walked out to the balcony with his apple martini, looked across the way at Kara's apartment, but didn't detect any movement at all.

Rachel-an extraordinary being-shot him with the Superman formula the previous year giving him great strength and speed like a Kryptonian, but it had one adverse side-effect: fits of rage. Most of the time, with the help of JJ, he could control the bouts of rage, but as soon as they happened, JJ and Orion appeared on the scene to calm his nerves.

Lena-a slender woman, black hair, and green eyes-sat on his couch drinking a dry martini and rummaging through the box of photos when James stood behind her with his hands gently pushing through her soft hair. He set down his drink on the left end table, and the light from the soft lamp gave off just enough illumination to make Lena's face glow. The aroma from her perfume enticed him, and as he slowly moved his hands from her hair, they eased down her blouse, undoing her top. Placing the photos back in the box, she reached over the top of the couch and gently traced her hand over his manhood. "You obviously invited me over for one thing?" She said smilingly.

Laughing, he said, "I'm happy with just your company, but.."

When she turned around on the couch, she quickly undid his trousers. He looked down at her for a moment, and she looked up at him, smiled, and then she kissed him on the front of his trousers. She slid her lips across his bulge. Moving her hair to one side, he gently kissed her on the left side of her neck, and then pulled her blouse over her head. After he removed her bra, he tossed her his old, white daily planet muscle shirt that was located on the end of the couch, and she slipped it on in almost one smooth motion. It was a white shirt with a picture of the Daily Planet on the front of it. Due to its size, it barely covered up her firm breast and allowed James easy access to all her assets. Her green eyes looked like two, perfect emeralds, but at the same time, he felt she kept important information from him, the kind of information that he needed to know.

After they had passionate sex on the couch, he rummaged through a box of old, tattered folders with black and white pictures of his family; some photos were over one hundred years old. Lena picked up one of the photos, and said, "This guy looks just like you."

James looked at the photo and then said, "That's my Great Great Uncle Julian Olsen. He's only about sixteen in that picture. He went missing at the age of seventeen. My grandfather died never knowing what happened to his brother."

"That's sad," she said calmly. She paused for a moment, and then asked, "What's your relationship with that tall ass kid, JJ, and his girlfriend? What's her name, Candy Cane or something insane like that?" She looked down at the picture for a moment, and then back up at James. "I mean everywhere we go that kid shows up wearing Gothic black and looking like he clawed his way out of hell. How did he even know where we were in Hawaii?"

"He's a rocker," he said, "He has a band and everything that plays music all over the country." Trying to shake off Lena's questioning about JJ, he thought back to when he and Lena were in Hawaii. The long plane ride, the busy airport, the change in climate-all had an adverse effect on him. Lena sat down on the airport bench near the food court to rest her feet, but when she was busy doing that, James absconded to the airport's bathroom because he felt the rage growing inside of him. When he screamed out in the bathroom stall, JJ appeared in front of him and looked him in the eyes until the rage disappeared.

"Where're your pills?" JJ asked calmly.

"Deep in my bags," James said, "I should've had them with me, but I forgot."

After that incident happened, JJ walked out of the bathroom with James, and when Lena looked up, she said, "What's he doing here?" She looked perturbed by his appearance, and then put on her black shades, looked down at the ground, and acted angry over his presence.

"I'm here to rock," JJ said as he held up the peace sign and stuck out his long tongue. Vera and Peppermint walked across the floor with a plate full of full, and then they sat down at one of the tables and ate. Lena looked at them with disgust in her eyes.

End of flashback.

"That didn't answer my question, James!" She exclaimed. "Why is he always hanging with you and Kara? He showed up out of nowhere with that Vera girl and Candy Cane looking like a warm bag of death. He wears more black than midnight. He then pulled out a black card, purchased drinks for the entire food court, and didn't bat an eye. Is he making that kind of money from rocking the clubs? It's airport food. That shit's pricey even for me."

"It's simple. He's good at what he does," he said, "JJ is a friend that resides in Little Africa. He has his own money, apartment, and everything now."

"With a black card?" She asked as she scratched her nose. "Is he the richest kid in Little Africa?"

"What are you trying to say?" He asked.

"First of all he's abnormally tall," she said, "When he looked at me, it was like he could see into my mind. He's creepy as hell."

JJ had cold, black eyes, the kind of eyes that penetrated the soul, and when he wore his Gothic uniform, it made him look ominous, and when it came to Peppermint, she often wore cute clothes, but she had the same kind of cold eyes as JJ. But to be honest, his eyes didn't change until Lena seduced him with the necklace made by the ancients to entrap him. She didn't know the myth of Ptah was real and that JJ was him incarnated.

Later on in the day, on a Saturday, JJ took part in a rock concert in the middle of downtown National City. The concert took up three city blocks and brought National City to a halt. More than a million people-human and alien-stood around eating popcorn, cotton candy, hot dogs, and every confection known in the area. He played a song called, "I'm Not Afraid of Your Muscles," and as far as James could tell, he was telling the people to stand up against bullying. When he sang the song, the entire crowd stood to their feet, and sang the chorus with him: "We're not afraid of your muscles. We gotta do what we can. Inside of every one of us is a Superman."

When James stood in the crowd of people, he heard a sapphire alien with black hair, scream, "He looks like Ptah." It caused him to pause for a moment because nobody knew JJ was the god Ptah except for a select few. The alien then laughed, tapped his friend on the shoulder, and said, "We could only wish he'd return and deliver us from the evils of this universe."

Chapter One

James walked into the DEO, and he knew something bad happened when JJ stood in the War Room in a suit, tie, and without any emo paint on his face. He figured it had to do with the alien ship that hovered over National City. When the concert finished up on Saturday, the alien craft moved into the city over the exact spot where the stage stood. The Vulcan and J'onn traveled to the ship on two occasions, but he didn't know why.

Peppermint had her child strapped to the front of her body while JJ briefed everybody on the current threat. When James walked into the War Room, the young kid looked over at him, and said, "Thank you for joining us, Mister Olsen." With a formal greeting coming from him, he knew it was serious business. Kara wore her Supergirl uniform, but most of the people in the room had on some kind of fancy business attire. Peppermint wore a business suit, and from what he could tell, their baby had on a pint-sized business uniform.

JJ paused for a moment as he flipped through his slideshow presentation. "The timeline is way off, guys. The ship hovering overhead is from Decay, and it's the second one I've encountered in as many years. The first time I ran into a Decayan vessel was in Freeland. We were able to get Prince Carious to leave, but he swore he'd be back. Basically, the Decayans explained to me that their ship slid into the Speed Force and it caused some kind of rift in space and time over Metropolis."

Supergirl raised her hand, and then JJ nodded to her. "Have you surmised on why they're here? I know Miss Ballard warned us the timeline had been skewed, but what're the ramifications?" With the power of his mind, the young kid took all the cellphones out of everybody's pockets and placed them in some kind of force field. "What's that all about?" Supergirl asked.

"What I'm about to tell you is top-secret. It's not that I don't trust you, but we can't afford any security leaks. Nobody outside of this environment can know what I'm about to tell you. Orion, please put a protective shield around this room?" Suddenly, JJ's palm computer came out of his backpack and shot a blue, panoramic beam around the entire room. It hovered in the far left corner while it fired its concealment ray to protect his information.

"Cool," Winn said.

"I know, right?" He pointed at Winn, and said, "You haven't seen what my car can do. Anyway, as all of you know, Earth has become a home to several different alien species," he said calmly. "The royal family of Gorgonia has made a home on Earth, but they are in a secret location. Their exact whereabouts are on a need-to-know basis, and nobody needs to know. I hate that I know. Two years ago, King Carious from the planet Decay took his fleet of ships and attacked Gorgonia. The Decays are trying to locate the royal family so they can't form an alliance with the other refugees, and take back their planet. But due to the rift in space and time, the Speed Force has leaked into our reality. It only merged with our reality for a short period of time, but long enough for a ripple effect to take place. Orion, give us some details on the Decays, please?"

"Yes, JJ," she said as she hovered in front of the room. "The Decays and Gorgons were once the same race. Their race started on Gorgonia, but about eight hundred thousand years ago, the Great Mother came to Gorgonia and saw two factions of Gorgons feuding. When one of the groups attacked the Great Mother, she used her technology and changed the race on a cellular level. She terraformed a planet that she called Decay, and placed them on that world. When the Decays are off-world, everything they touch rots. This means if any of you come in direct contact with one of the Lords of Decay, you will die."

JJ looked right at Winn, and said, "Please find a suitable bodysuit for Supergirl. Peppermint's and my uniforms give us about thirty seconds of protection. James, I estimate your suit will give about the same amount of protection. In any case, we don't let the Decays touch us if we engage them." He paused for a moment, and then said, "The Green Lantern Corp cut all ties with Decay. In addition, the Federation of Planets in the Dark Corridor are holding sanctions against the planet until they leave Gorgonia."

"Are the sanctions working?" J'onn asked.

"Not according to Mister Ryan," he said with a scowl on his face, "He has a tenuous connection with several Deceivers working in the Federation of Planets, and all negotiations with the Decays ended in name calling and people storming out of the room. But since nobody is buying their precious metals, it has devastated Decay's economy." JJ looked directly at Kara and then said, "I'm sorry, Supergirl. I haven't forgotten you. According to Orion's understanding, we have no mention of him coming to Earth before twenty-twenty-two," he said, "He was killed by Michael Hall and John Stewart over Gotham. In the original timeline, Africa was one nation with fifty-four states, and their President was Brainiac Seven. Orion and I believe the tear in the Speed Force caused a ripple that has affected time in all directions. In the previous timeline, Africa had its own currency. By twenty-seventeen, the American dollar had cratered and completely devastated America's economy. The Justice Corp disbanded, but Doctor Hawkins, Bruce Wayne, and Superman turned the Justice Corp into a thriving business." JJ looked like he was experiencing some pain, and then he said, "In a few months, Mister and Misses Olsen was supposed to be getting married."

"Who was the lucky girl?" Kara asked laughingly. She slapped her hands on both her knees and chuckled sheepishly.

"You were," JJ said, "Orion showed me the pictures of your wedding the other day. It caught me completely off guard. You had three beautiful kids who grew into strong men and women." He paused for a moment, and then said, "In twenty-twenty-five, Barry Allen, Wonder Woman, Superman, and you," he pointed directly at Kara, "Disappeared off the face of the Earth. General McGinnis, the Destroyer, investigated your whereabouts for years, but couldn't find any traces of you. Your disappearance devastated James, but he eventually recovered in the twenty-forties."

"It took him that long to get over Kara?" Winn asked, "That's some serious love."

"He never got over Kara, Winn," he said, "Another Kara came from an alternate universe with nearly two thousand Kryptonians. They enslaved the Earth for five years." He paused for a moment, and then said, "The Kryptonians on the alternate Earth are currently flying blindly through their universe."

"Damn! Why did they leave when they ruled the Earth in the future?" J'onn asked.

"The Destroyer asked them to leave," JJ said. "He brought the nomadic Kryptonians to a planet called Praxis. It's a planet under a red sun."

"This Destroyer must be pretty powerful if two thousand Kryptonians obeyed him," James said.

JJ laughed. "Tell him, Orion."

"Oh. There was one Kryptonian who stood up to him," she said.

"Who?" Kara asked.

"Your doppelganger. When the Kryptonians came to Earth, they were dying from gamma radiation poison. James held Kara in his arms as she lay dying. The Destroyer knew James couldn't stand to lose Kara twice, so he cured her. He then used his powerful warship to cure all the Kryptonians. When the Destroyer told Kara she had to live on Praxis with the other Kryptonians, so the race could grow strong, she said, 'No. James is my husband, and I will spend all my days with him on Earth.'"

James looked over at Kara for a moment, and she wiped the tears from her eyes. "He held me while I was dying?"

"That's right," Orion said, "He stayed by your side as you drifted off, and then the Destroyer brought you back.

"In twenty-eighty-two, James had developed fast-growing cancer, and didn't have long to live," JJ said, "When you lost consciousness, the Destroyer cured you of your cancer, and turned back the clock on you. You looked like a twenty-year-old man when he was finished with you. About ten years later, you took a trip to Praxis with Kara and all your kids, and the Destroyer was there. You sat down with Kara, the Destroyer, and all your kids, and said, 'I love you all, but I've lived longer than any human should be allowed to live. I am one hundred and ten years old, but I look like a thirty-year-old man. Even though I have this young body, my mind is tired. I'm tired. When my time comes to die, please let me die."

"What did I say?" Kara asked.

"Your Doppelganger sobbed for a long time, and then said, 'Okay.'" JJ paused for a moment, and then said, "I don't think any of this will happen now. You two barely like each other," he said as he looked at Kara and James. The United States of Africa doesn't have their own currency yet."

Later in the day…

James sat in his office at Catco, and the alien vessel continued to hover over the city. When he looked out the window at the large ship, the information that JJ told him wouldn't leave his mind. He thought about his feelings for Kara, and he didn't have any at all. In addition, he wondered how the Speed Force had so much control over everything. The idea that an entity wrapped itself around the universe confused him. He didn't quite understand its power.

But at the same time, he thought about why Kara broke up with him a few years back; he did everything in his power to forget about her and he continued to struggle with his thoughts. Often, he wondered if she had any empathy or compassion for him because she didn't feel anything when she broke his heart. She had chased him for an entire year, and then when he relented to her affections, she threw him away like a bag of garbage.

James sat at his desk, pulled up a video of the alien craft, and watched it. About two hours earlier, JJ went into the ship with J'onn, and when they returned, they looked somewhat upset about the situation. He thought for a moment that National City would always have an alien problem, and that disturbed him. James looked up, straight out the window, and watched the alien vessel. It wasn't the first time that creatures from another planet paid Earth a visit.

It was about two o'clock in the afternoon on August eighteenth when the first transmission from the alien ship happened. It was a Monday, a warm day, and the people moved about the city cautiously. James slowly ate a bowl of soup while he studied the notes JJ sent him on the alien craft. He had been working for the last few days on the ship's strengths and weaknesses. On the far end of his office, he had the image of JJ with several darts in his head. He had a strong dislike for the precocious teenager, but at the same time, he cared about the young man. Meanwhile, he had to hire a slew of scientists to deal with the rise of unexplained deaths in most European nations. At first, they thought the uptick of deaths happened across the globe, but it appeared to only be in European nations and Japan.

A sudden burst of light-a radioactive laser beam-frightened James. It was a steady beam of light that hit in the center of downtown National City, but he didn't know exactly what the aliens were doing. As the laser shot down to the ground, a sudden release of electrical energy shot up into the craft, and it turned bright blue. At first, James thought the ship would explode, but it didn't. When the light show quit, JJ flew back up into the ship, and James didn't know what was taking place. For nearly four hours, the young teen stayed in the alien vessel, and then about six o'clock in the afternoon, he exited the ship. The alien vessel flew away, and JJ left the area.

Kara walked into James' office, and said, "I'm not sure what JJ did, but the aliens left." She looked out his window at the empty sky. "Every since he battled the Red Raider, he hasn't been the same with us. He's been sneaky. You know? Like a rat."

James tapped his pen on his desk, and then said, "When the Raider hit you with a kryptonite beam, you scolded him for punching her too hard."

"He killed her! It was Lena, James," she said, "He hit her so hard that it smashed the metal helmet into her face. She died instantly."

"But he was able to administer the potion and brought her back with his healing machine," he said, "She doesn't remember any of the events."

"Still! He killed her," she said with a grimace. "We don't kill. Ever! At the same time, rumor has it the Vulcan didn't intervene when metas killed cops in Freeland."

James looked at Kara with a grimace on his face. He walked over to her as she was visibly upset over her protege and his recent actions. "All I know is JJ went to the extreme to protect you. That kryptonite was weaponized, and it came close to killing you."

"But Lena is my friend, James," she said, "Protege or not, we don't kill."

Later in the evening…

James drove his Jaguar to his penthouse apartment, sat in his hot tub, and looked up into the blackened sky. He feared something had changed with his friend, but he didn't know what was going on with him. He did kill Lena with a devastating blow to her face, and he didn't have to do that. He had already damaged the telepathic field that kept him from neutralizing her with his mind, but he chose to punch her in the face instead. After he ripped off her suit, he took the technology out of it.

"What are you doing with that tech?" James asked with a grimace.

JJ looked up at him, and said, "Her helmet blocked my telepathy and I found that interesting." He paused as he quickly dissected the helmet. "I'm going to have to learn everything about this tech so I can circumvent it. Orion measured my abilities and rated me at a level seven telepath. In time, I will ascend to a level ten. "

Kara lay by him, but she was deathly weakened by the kryptonite. She was barely able to speak when she saw her friend's face caved inward. "You killed her! You promised you wouldn't, JJ."

"I can bring her back," he said in a strong voice. He took the elixir out of his suit that broke the spell of the crystal, poured it down her throat, and then her entire body glowed silver. Vera, his best friend, walked over with a black box that had a lock on it. JJ put in the combination, and when he opened it, it contained two devices: a large, electronic half-circled looking device that adjusted to the waistline and a smaller device for the head.

"What are you doing?" James asked.

"This device will restore her," he said calmly. "I'm going to erase her memory of me. She'll never know she wore an ancient necklace that allowed her to seduce me."

"Just bring her back," Kara said as she stood to her feet in her Supergirl uniform. When the young teen placed the device on her head, he began to program it with several algorithms. He must have spent ten minutes programming the device, and Kara wasn't trying to be patient about it. She stood to her feet and started tapping her right boot loudly.

"Okay," he said, "It's best that you leave."

"I'm not going anywhere," Kara snapped.

"Supergirl, please?" He said with a grimace. "You're acting like you don't trust me."

"I trusted you once, Vulcan, not to kill my best friend," she snapped, "But you failed."

"She was about to kill you," Vera said, "What did you expect him to do?"

Kara snarled and then flew up in the air.

"Guardian, pull off your helmet," JJ said.

"What about my identity?" He asked.

"We're in the middle of the desert," JJ said, "Vera already knows who you are."

"Did you tell?" He asked.

"No. Kara mentioned it," Vera said.

"Ugh! Figures," he said.

When James removed his helmet, JJ said, "I mean put on your civilian clothes." Suddenly, JJ donned his regular clothing, and then his car appeared out of nowhere and landed directly in front of them. Lena's red raider suit floated into the trunk of JJ's car. "When she wakes, I want your face to be the first face she sees."

"Why's that?" He asked.

"She won't know me," he said. "I don't want to spook her."

He gently placed the device on her crushed-in forehead, and then it began to reconstruct her face like magic. It took about three minutes to fix her visage, and she looked more beautiful than ever. After that, the device spoke, "Narcotizing the patient." After a few seconds, the machine spoke again. "Restoring life."

"Okay, James," JJ said, "Lean over her."

"Alright," he said calmly. He looked her directly in the face, and then she opened her eyes.

"James," she said with a smile. "What's going on?"

"You passed out," he said as he gently removed the device from her head.

JJ, Vera, and Orion hopped into the car.

"What about us?" James asked.

"Assholes walk," JJ said with a grimace. He took off down the road, and James couldn't believe he done that to them.

He helped Lena to her feet, and all she had on were some black shorts, a black bra, and no shoes or socks. She was almost nude. James took off his shirt, placed it around the young woman, and it pretty much looked like a dress.

Jame's received a text message from Winn that stated he was on his way to pick them up.

End of Backstory…

James sat in his warm and soothing hot tub while he drank his apple martini. He thought about his vacation with Lena and how fast their relationship blossomed. He asked JJ if he had something to do with her abrupt and immediate attraction to him, but he gave an ambiguous reply. After JJ used his device on her, she became clingy. For almost an entire month, she barely let him breathe, and when he asked the Vulcan about it, he asked, "Is she satisfying you?"

He looked at him for a moment, and said, "Yeah."

"Then shut up and enjoy yourself," he snapped, "You need to learn to live a little."

James hung up the phone on him because he knew he wasn't going to get a better answer from JJ. He had a way of saying everything except what needed to be said. When James and Lena went to Florida, they spent more time having sex than enjoying the beach and other attractions. He thought they had sex like teens who discovered it for the first time, but at the same time, he felt a tad apprehensive because she was the younger sister of Lex Luthor, a diabolical enemy of Superman. He had a multitude of interpersonal thoughts about how his relationship with her came into existence, and from what he knew, it had to do with whatever JJ did with his machine.

She lay in the bed next to him in the nude. Her hair was wet from all the sweating, and she laid her head gently on his massive, muscular chest outlining his pectorals with her index finger. He tried enjoying the moment, but he had a hard time because he didn't know the motive behind Lena's affection. As she lay on his chest, he delicately massaged her scalp, and then ran his fingers down her back. He remembered she smelled like strawberries and sweat because they had been having sex on the floor, the bed, the couch, the coffee table, and just about on every flat surface in their luxury suite.

"Why are you attracted to me?" He asked as she rested her head on his chest. She had been sliding her left hand down the front of his body, to his crotch, and then finished her travels by stroking his penis to an erection. But when he asked what she saw in him, she stopped stroking his manhood and sat up in the bed.

"You're strong, intelligent, and I feel that you care about me," she said with a serious look on her face. "You're the first guy I can recall who can actually see me as being more than a Luthor."

James smiled. "Do you want to take this relationship to the next level?" He asked.

"You mean a serious courtship that may eventually lead to wedding vows?" She asked.

"Exactly," he said.

"So, are you saying you see me as the girl you want to marry?" She asked in disbelief.

"Well, I'm saying let's work towards that goal," he said, "I consider our relationship at the beginning stages, but I'm willing to water it, cherish it, and ensure it grows in a healthy direction."

Suddenly, he heard a knock on his front door, and he thought it was JJ, but then again, JJ doesn't usually knock. _He just lands on the balcony and makes himself at home_. When he answered the door, Lyra stood on the other side. Her blond hair was a little longer than shoulder length. She was a refugee from the planet Starhaven. She held a bottle of wine in her right hand. The ridges on her nose were prominent, but it didn't lessen her beauty.

Winn walked out of the elevator, and said, "Forgot my phone." He held it up, twirled it in his right hand, and then placed it back in his back pocket.

"Come in, guys," James said with a smile.

"Where's Lena?" Winn asked with a serious look on his face.

"She's overseeing a special project," he said.

They all sat in the hot tub, and Lyra had all the parts of an Earth woman, but her facial structure was a little different than a human female's.

"I'm worried that Lexcorp is developing a system to track metahumans," Winn said, "This means they'll be able to track you."

"Most of the Little Africa metas have been registered in the government database, but for some reason, JJ and Peppermint don't show to be meta because another type of technology imbued them with their powers."

"But they took the brunt of the radiation on Nigga Night," he said.

"What they took in were the god-sparks of ancient deities," Lyra said, "Somehow the god-sparks allowed them to go undetected."

"Will Lexcorp be able to detect JJ's godlike abilities?" James asked.

"Doubt it," he said with a smirk. "But if they test you, it's going to show in your bloodstream because Doctor Ballard used the Superman formula on you."

"The Superman formula causes me to rage out sometimes," he said, "I'm afraid that Lena might see me when I'm at my worse. If not for the special medicine from Cadmus, I'd be insane right now."

"I hope you don't snap on anybody," Winn said, "They're looking for reasons to brand metas. I remember that teacher, Karen Nater, killing all those cops and school administrators last year. "

"She's in Gotham," James said with a grimace. "JJ and Peppermint visited her when they visited Mister Wayne." James paused for a moment, and then said, "I think Earth needs metas."

"The problem with this invasion of privacy is Superman backs it," Lyra said as she took a sip of her whiskey. "I'm just amazed at a nation so eager to protect the Second Amendment, but shit all over the First and Fourth."

"We're only practicing democracy," James said as he took a sip of his drink. "If the events are right, we could become a dictatorship overnight."

"That's a horrible thought," Winn said. "About ten percent of Little Africa ended up with some kind of metahuman powers. Most of the powers aren't anything to worry about, but the people closest to the particle accelerator are like gods."

"A force registration won't tell the government the meta's powers," James said, "What if a metahuman can bend time? How would the government be able to tell that?"

"I don't know," Winn said, "It would take years of study. I guess they'd have to search the world for metas with like abilities and do a comparison. But that reminds me. I think Vulcan intentionally tried to kill Lena due to an anomaly in time."

James paused for a moment and looked over at Lyra in her nice bikini. He then turned to Winn, and said, "About five years ago, Superman battled Lex in Lena's apartment in Metropolis. I was filming the whole scene. During the melee, Lena fell over the side of her balcony. She must have held on for about a minute before I grabbed her, and pulled her to safety."

"I just know Orion said she died in twenty thirteen. She didn't give any details. That's why Vulcan wanted her dead." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Orion told me something else."

"The Vulcan's friend talks to you a lot," James said.

"Mostly about tech stuff," he said, "But there's another problem. I'm not going to share this with Kara."

"What's that?" James asked.

"When you and Kara married in twenty-nineteen," he said, "Superman wasn't happy about it. It caused a rift between you two.."

James sat back in his hot tub for a moment and tried his best to think over the possibility of a relationship with Kara, and he couldn't fathom it. In his heart, he felt their time had passed by, and now when he looked at her, he only saw her as a friend. JJ told him earlier that everything had changed, but he didn't know how to take it. He didn't like her the way he used to like her before she abruptly broke it off with him. He didn't feel she had the ability to empathize with him on any level. They could be friends, but nothing more because she didn't know how to protect his heart. Empathy wasn't one of her best qualities, at least not for him.

"Do you think the Vulcan will try to kill Lena?" James asked Winn.

"No," he said, "He realized afterward that it was a step into madness to try to preserve the future because everything was already out of whack."

Next day…

It was the next morning, and Lyra and Winn slept on the foldout couch. It wasn't the first time they drank too much wine and whiskey and had to sleep it off at his crib. He stepped out onto the balcony when he saw a gigantic monster on the edge of National City. At first, he thought he was dreaming until he slapped himself in the face. The gigantic creature was about a mile outside of Little Africa, but he didn't see the Vulcan on the scene. Usually, if anything went down on that side of town, the Vulcan moved on it quickly, but the creature had free reign.

"Winn, wake up!" James exclaimed. "We have a fifty-foot monster on the scene."

"The Vulcan and Supergirl are in DC discussing the New Justice Corp legislation," Winn said, "It's just you today."

James pushed a button on his wrist communicator and donned his Guardian uniform. It happened so fast that he barely had time to brace himself before he was covered from top to bottom with the protective suit. It almost looked like the synthetic material came out of his skin, but it didn't. It all came out of his wrist communicator that Winn created. Instead of riding his motorcycle, he flew from the balcony like Superman or any other hero with the ability to fly, headed towards the monster, and realized he was the only person available to fight it. When Rachel Ballard injected James with the Superman formula, it gave him similar abilities to the Man of Steel. Due to National City's need for a human hero, JJ asked him to never let the world see him do unhuman like things. But due to the massiveness and power of the creature, he had to reveal his other abilities to save the city.

The creature was approximately fifty feet in height with a head that looked similar to that of a dragon. Sage feathers grew from its head. In addition, he had a large emerald body with a wingspan of over two hundred yards. Taller than most of the buildings in the area, he waddled into Little Africa without a hero in its way. The streets were chaotic as the monster chunked thousands of vials of some kind of liquid on the ground. They shot out of the creature's mouth and the white colored vials flew all over the area.

James flew up to the creature's face, looked it in its eyes, and immediately realized it was some kind of large robot. With all his strength, he punched it in the face, and the monster tumbled backward, but when it went to fall over on a portion of the city, he flew around to the other side of it and kept it upright. The monster tried to swing at the Guardian, but he caught it by the fist, flung it into the badlands, and then tore it to pieces. He continued to tear the metal off of the vile monster until he saw all the vials in its belly area.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Orion flew into the south bay of the Celestial Kingdom, an empty bay that once held the Phantom, Ptah's ship, a massive vessel that stretched over two hundred yards. It no longer had the Phantom in the bay because Orion had the vessel attached to the side of the Celestial Kingdom while Po'Darro had his ship in the bay. But after the two Kryptonian kids took over the planet Neo Star, Orion needed the ship to address the situation within the parameters the Great Mother specified. Orion felt a coldness, a betrayal because of her Lord's absence, but if she didn't keep apprised of the situation on Neo Star, she knew the Kryptonian kids would destroy that planet.

The bay was the place where Po'Darro built his massive ship, The She Ah Vog, a vessel made for entering into the Speed Force and bringing out his precious Momma, Ro'Dan. The only person who knew of the young man's lineage was Orion, and due to the laws within the realm of the gods, she had to keep it secret to protect them. Even though Ptah had children with Trilobites in the past, it became a crime among the gods of old to do so in the days of the Kryptonian unrest. If he had known about the birth of his children with a lowly Trilobite, he would have been obligated to kill them. The Speed Force sucked in his Momma, Ro'Dan, nearly twelve years earlier, and for some reason, Orion knew he would do anything to try and save his Momma. With all the knowledge that she gave Ptah's first child with Ro'Dan about the Speed Force, she knew he'd fly to his death in his massive ship, and in some way, the death of him and his siblings would save her from ever telling Ptah they existed.

Ptah's oldest child with Ro'Dan stood in the middle of the bay wearing his black, spiked helmet that fit his head like a glove. The front of the headgear had ridges on the forehead part. Orion made the helmet for the demigods to block them from accidentally drawing the attention of their father. His bare arms were blue and muscular, and he wore black gloves that protected him from reacting with the metal of the ship. It was due to his demigod status that caused an interaction with temporal steel, an explosive reaction that had enough force to kill him.

She studied every inch of Po'Darro's ship over the last few years, and gave him the formula to the precious metal the gods called Temporal Steel; it gave the ship the capability of traveling through space and time-and entering into the Speed Force with little to no cosmic consequences. When Orion approached Po'Darro, he had a negative attitude that caused her dismay.

"Don't you dare try to stop me, Orion," he said with a grimace. "My father, the one who forsaken my Momma and never took the time to know me lives on Thanagar with his whore wife and bastard children."

"Your brothers," she reminded him quickly. It bothered her that Ptah flew to Thanagar with a new Siren love, and used Orion's mind to imbue her with knowledge from the last four million years. "That whore wife you mentioned has my mind and the mind of your mother. They're one and the same, you know?" She paused for a moment as she flew next to Po's head, and then said, "If you're not careful, Ptah will sense your presence with his powerful mind, and then he'll eradicate you as the law requires."

He snarled. "I didn't ask to be the child of a god who destroyed the old verse," he snapped, "I'm the lust, the shame, the awfulness of Ptah. I wear this helmet you made so he can't detect my mind," he snapped, "Once I'm in the Speed Force, I will know freedom from this device. I will be away from Ptah's reach and closer to my Momma."

The Vulcan stood in front of the noisy Senate, a group of mostly old, white men and women, who argued over the advent of the new Justice Corp. None of them knew the young man under the mask, the god of old-Ptah. At this point, he barely knew himself and still hadn't come to an understanding of his true identity. He spent nearly two hundred thousand years as a conscience inside a box in the Celestial Kingdom waiting to enter the perfect host. Due to the curse of the necklace, he lost so much time and understanding, and if not for his daughters, he would be completely lost.

His solid black uniform covered him from head to toe with the letter "V" in the middle of his chest. He stood nearly seven-feet-tall, towering above all the other people in the room. He had the ability to control his appearance and often appeared taller when he stood in front of the Senate. The Vulcan didn't trust the men in the room because they often sided with rogue agencies like Downing Chemical, an evil company who poisoned the town of Freeland. With the power of his mind, he could've obliterated the people responsible for contaminating the town, but he knew if he acted in that manner, the moment to teach would be lost. Tapping his fingers on the podium, he watched the men and women in the room closely. He could feel the tension in the air.

Miss Sticky (his girlfriend) stood to the rear right of him and Supergirl stood to his left; his girlfriend wore a solid white uniform with a red circle in the middle of it. Her white mask with the flowing red cape made her look majestic. She stood close to the Vulcan, and it was obvious they were a couple. Vera stayed in the Regency Hotel with Veo, and they formed team Victory. Bruce Wayne sat in the Senate on the front row looking dapper and still in his forties because JJ used the healing machine to make him younger after his heart attack, and Clark Kent was one of the reporters in the rear of the room. At the time, Bruce Wayne was actually around sixty-five-years-old.

The amount of vitriol spewing from the Senators would've easily overwhelmed most people, but the Vulcan expected it because of the money he received from Downing Chemical caused a lot of their investors dismay. Earlier, James Olsen allowed the world to see the Vulcan cleaning up Freeland, but even so, the courts continued to deny the people restitution. For him to receive his payment, he had to use scare tactics by entering the dreams of the Downing board members. He had them so scared to deny him the money that they paid him immediately. At the same time, he knew his demands (payment for the clean-up, never contaminating the area again, and protecting the citizens of Freeland) would cause a backlash from the government, but he didn't care. Standing in front of the Senators, the Vulcan said, "Without the Justice Corp, the world is open to attacks from powerful nations beyond our planet. With the resources that each government of the world puts into Justice Corp, we can build a powerful defense against an alien attack." As the Vulcan continued to speak, an old man hopped to his feet and interrupted what he was saying. He looked at the old man in his beady eyes and came close to frying his brain with his telepathy.

"Why should we listen to you?" The old man named Senator Jax Little asked in a strong, disrespectful voice. He patted his stomach and smirked. The old man stood approximately six-foot-two, and when he spoke, his voice sounded harsh but brittle. He pushed back his chair with the force of his butt, slammed both of his leathery hands on his desk, and then walked toward the Vulcan menacingly. "You extorted money from a government contractor!" He turned to face his colleagues in the Senate, and then screamed, " It set their development back for twenty years."

"Here we go," Supergirl whispered as she looked worried for a moment.

The Vulcan gazed over at Supergirl for a moment, and then at Senator Jax Little, a large pudgy man with a high and tight haircut. He had a strong but brittle voice, but when he spoke, it cracked. "You're asking us to give you billions of dollars for your little project, but you extorted over five hundred million from Downing." He put both hands on his hips and swayed back and forth. He continued to try to anger the Vulcan while getting his comrades to support his diatribe.

Calmly, the Vulcan said, "You're using such strong language, Senator. You're basically using words like extorted, but that isn't the case now is it? Do you think a business should be able to poison the people without consequences? Mind your manners, you're on television."

The Senator flailed his arms, and then screamed, "You don't tell me what to do, son!" He became agitated, and grabbed the glass of water that set on his desk, and took a swig. "We make the laws. We decide right and wrong." He pointed at the Vulcan and then screamed, "Not you. You aren't judge and jury, freak."

"I did a much-needed service by cleaning up the toxic mess in Freeland," he said calmly. He grabbed the microphone, looked at Clark Kent, and then said, "But the contamination is in Metropolis too. I didn't clean that up. There's already a ten percent increase in pancreatic cancers in the area." He paused for a moment, and then said, "That water you're drinking. That very glass of water, Senator, contains contaminated water from Freeland."

"What?" Senator Little screamed. "Why didn't you clean up that mess?"

"I don't work for free," The Vulcan said as he stepped away from the microphone.

Later in the morning...

JJ, Peppermint, Vera, and Kara flew back to National City in his flying car, The Messiah, from Washington DC in about ten seconds. With modifications he made to the vehicle, with the help of Orion, the car had the ability to open and close portals, an ancient attribute he possessed when he had the power of a god. In time, he would ascend back to the level of a god, but until then, he used the ancient technology from Orion's memory banks to build the addon. While he spoke with the members of Congress about starting the New Justice Corp, Orion worked with Captain Atom to close the anomaly within the Speed Force that affected the skies over Metropolis. As he prepared his car to open a portal over Washington DC, Orion flew into the sunroof, and then into JJ's backpack.

"We closed the rift over Metropolis," she said, "But something isn't right. I detected several slight anomalies over the entire area. It's tacking something."

"What does that mean?" Kara asked.

"Something is disrupting the Speed Force," JJ said, "Normally, it's an unrecognized speedster on this plane."

JJ looked over at Peppermint for a moment, and then asked, "Are you having any unexpected vibrations?"

"Nope," she said with a grimace. "Could it be the baby?" She asked.

He looked over at his girlfriend, and then said, "It could be, but his powers won't manifest until much later."

For a moment, he thought back to his homeworld, to his daughters, and wondered if one of them knew the reason for the anomalies within the Speed Force. Kova La-Ptah's first daughter with Sekhmet-imbued him with his memories from the Neuronet, an event that would've happened naturally at the age of twenty-one. When he returned to his homeworld, he wanted the knowledge of his former self in the hope it would speed up his apotheosis. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and it pained the young man. He developed several tools over two million years ago that allowed him to enter the Speed Force, but he left them on his ship, the Phantom over two hundred thousand years earlier. When he created the Speed Force nearly two million years ago, he intended it to imprison the most powerful beings in the universe. But when the magnificent energy shot across the galaxy, it not only created a prison but a multiverse: all the planets and beings except for the Original La family were replicated an infinite number of times. Whenever a new speedster arrived on the scene, the Speed Force mapped their DNA by absorbing them into its wake for approximately two weeks. The process was called Awakening.

Kara looked over at the young hero from the backseat, and said, "This car is incredible, JJ."

When he flew over Little Africa, he saw the shredded metal on the ground, in the badlands on the outskirts of the city. Tiny white vials littered the ground, and he didn't know what to make of it. They were everywhere like a metal container had exploded. He landed his car near the wreckage while he was in invisibility mode, and then drove into the city. Once he ducked behind a building, he made the car visible, and then Kara said. "You need any help with this?" She was referring to the mess all over the badlands of Freeland.

"We're good," JJ said, "We'll handle it."

"Okay," Kara said.

"I'm going to check out those white vials all over the ground," he said.

"Send me a text on what you find?" She said as she climbed out of the vehicle.

JJ and Peppermint walked up to the wreckage while Vera stood behind with the car. "Let me in on the action?" Vera asked.

"We got this," Orion said as she flew out of JJ's backpack, and began analyzing the vials that were all over the ground. Vera climbed into the driver's seat of the Messiah while JJ looked closely at the vials. "That's strange," Orion said.

"Momma's going to kill me if we stay gone all day today," Peppermint said with a grimace. She picked up one of the white vials. "Let's find out what's going on, and then get home."

"She's enjoying her grandson," JJ said, "She's not worried about us." He waved his right hand, and several of the vials formed into a large, white pile.

She laughed, "I don't know about that," she said, "He's constantly hungry and annoying."

"It looks like the Guardian fought this creature," Orion said, "I'm seeing his shadow on everything, but I'm also detecting signatures from other times and dimensions. It's the same signature I saw over Metropolis."

JJ pressed the communicator button on his right wrist, and then said, "James, you left this wreckage all over my side of town?"

"Excuse me for saving the city, dog," he said, "But I did what I had to do."

"I have Orion looking at these vials on the ground," he said, "I find it quite odd that the robot came to Earth just to throw his trash everywhere."

"Roger that," he said, "Keep me in the know?"

"Will do," JJ said, "I will drop by your office later."

Orion flew over to him, and said, "In the future, we call this liquid substance Pump, but it's a much older drug, a drug that dates back over a million years. This version of the drug is military grade, but there's a milder version that is used for recreational use. In some species, it causes super strength while in others, docility."

"What's the purpose of throwing it all over the ground like this?' Peppermint asked. "It smells chalky."

"It's highly addictive," Orion said. "If criminal elements use this drug, the police won't be able to stop them. It will cause undetectable superpowers."

"This drug was on Vega Star nearly one point two million years ago," JJ said as he held up one of the white containers. "I remember this. When did Pump originally hit the scene in the future?" JJ asked as he looked at one of the vials.

"In the year twenty-twenty-two," she said, "So, as I said in the meeting, time is altered, and its effects are deadly."

JJ looked over at Peppermint, and said, "You and Vera head out. Orion and I will take care of this business."

"Okay," she said as they kissed. She hopped in the passenger seat of his car and took off down the street.

When Peppermint and Vera left, JJ bent down, grabbed a vial from the pile he made, and then sniffed it. "It does smell chalky." He paused for a moment, and then said, "My memory is returning, and I remember this drug, Orion. It was a major player in the Great War."

"I figured the sadder memories would return," she said, "The drug originated on Vega Star. They sold it to the Peridians who used it on the Gidison slaves," she said, "It kept them docile. It works quite well in most humanoids, including Kryptonians under a yellow sun."

"But this robotic creature isn't Peridian at all, is it?" He asked. JJ picked up a piece of metal with a familiar symbol on it, and said, "I swear this looks like the same symbol I saw all over that Decayan ship, but it has distinct differences." He paused for a moment, rubbed his forehead, and then sighed. "Orion, you, Veo, the Great Mother, and I exist solely in this verse. When we enacted the Speed Force, it replicated everything in this verse an infinite number of times, and some of the different verses would veer off course from this one."

"That's right," she said, "I would say they all have their own idiosyncrasies."

"This language is Decayan. The Speed Force has somehow merged this verse with another one and there are subtle differences in the tongue," he said.

"You're right," she said, The tech looks Decayan. Very Decayan, but I will agree it's from another verse."

JJ used his telekinesis to lift the machinery off the ground, into the air, and then out into space. As he pushed the belly of the creature up into the atmosphere, thousands of more vials of the drug caught the jetstream and flew to different parts of the country.

Immediately, he flew into Catco Media, on the balcony, and walked into James' office. It was mid-afternoon, but Mister Olsen wasn't anywhere to be seen. He walked over to his enlarged picture with all the darts in it and shook his head in disagreement. On some level, the idea that his friends put darts in his photo bothered him, and he didn't quite know why.

"They don't like you too much," Orion said as she floated by his head. "It's odd that you do so much for them and this city, but they despise you." Immediately, he donned his emo attire, sat at James' desk, and acted like he ran the company. "He's going to kill you."

When James walked into his office with Kara, he lowered the blinds over his entire office so nobody could see into it. "What did you find out?" James asked.

"The Lords of Decay made the robot," JJ said with a grimace. "The vials are a drug called Pump. It not only gives the user a high, but it also gives the user super strength."

"What's their endgame?" James asked. "Why put the drugs all over Freeland?"

"Chaos," JJ said calmly. "If criminals are on this drug, the cops won't be able to handle them." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Just think the chaos that would erupt if one man had super strength against a group of cops. Now, with this drug on the streets, everybody who uses it will have super strength."

"This means we'll be working nonstop if every petty criminal has super strength," Kara said with a grimace. "There's no way we can stop this."

"The drug can't be detected with the new metahuman test either," Orion said, "Normal people will have super strength, and the new test won't work on them." JJ hopped out of James's seat, and then Orion flew onto his shoulder. She looked like a parrot for a moment. "A side effect of the drug is lactation," Orion said, "I don't mean a little lactation either. With lactation comes severe dehydration. It's a club drug in the future, but can have deadly consequences if not mixed correctly."

"Gross," Kara said, "Why?"

"This drug will change our society," JJ said with a grimace. "And not in a good way."

James sat behind his desk, rubbed his bald head, and then asked, "Why did you kill Red Raider, JJ?"

JJ looked at Kara for a moment, and then simply said, "I did what I had to do. For me to administer the elixir, I had to knock her out." He paused for a moment because he knew he walked into a trap. They wanted to get him cornered so they could drill him about killing Lena Luthor.

"Really, JJ!" Kara exclaimed, "Don't pretend like you accidentally killed her. She was my friend."

"I knew I could bring her back to life," he said with a grimace. "Please explain to me why you two are acting crazy when she's okay? Aren't you dicking her down every night, James?"

"That's not the point, JJ. You'd be the first one to flip out if anybody else killed somebody," James said, "You didn't kill that Decayan in Freeland."

"Listen. I know you already know why I killed her. Orion, you got a big mouth," JJ said with a grimace, "I thought you had my back for life."

"Oh, so you're going to read my mind?" James asked.

"Damn right," he said. He looked over at Kara, and said, "Kara, she was supposed to die in twenty thirteen, but somebody in this room saved her life, James. I thought taking her down would put us back on course, but it didn't. After we fought the Red Raider, I went to the Time Bureau, but they didn't know jack."

"There's a Time Bureau?" James asked.

"Yeah. We have a rogue time traveler mucking up history," he said, "But for some reason, I couldn't get the Time Bureau to act on it because they didn't detect the anomaly."

"JJ, I'm picking up some chatter on the news channels about Downing Chemical," Orion said. She flew over to the monitors, turned them on, and a special news report on the company appeared on the screen. A young, black reporter out of Freeland came on the tube, and said, "The courts just threw out the city's case against Downing Chemical because The Vulcan cleaned up the spill."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Po'Darro flew his thirty-man vessel, She Ah Vog, into the void near a planet called Gaia. It orbited around the blue world for nearly a day as the navigator, Vo Dax, calculated the size of the portal into the Speed Force. With a few button combinations on his control panel, the Captain created an anomaly in the universe, a gateway that would allow his ship to slip into the Speed Force. The gaping hole opened approximately two thousand miles from Gaia, and the anomaly grew three times larger than the ship; its space on the other side had an orange glow that Po watched closely, and then asked Vo Dax, his younger brother, about the energy's stability.

"Will the gateway hold, Vo Dax?" Po asked as he watched the entity closely. He looked worried because he knew the only way to save his Momma was with the She Ah Vog. The temporal steel on the hull of the ship was the only alloy that could take the pressure of the Speed Force. If the gateway collapsed around the ship, the mission would come to a halt, and saving his Momma would be futile because all the Trilobites would die instantly.

"It will," he said calmly. He walked over to his older brother, and then said, "The She Ah Vog is of your design, and I trust in your knowledge of shipbuilding. We will survive this."

Vo Dax watched Gaia out the window of the ship, and its blue and green glow filled him with joy. He knew Gaia to be the planet where Ptah dropped off the species of Huemonds years earlier; he wanted them to grow strong and become the people the gods dreamed they could be.

"It's such a beautiful planet," Vo Dax said with a smile. "The primitive creatures have almost all died off, and now the Huemonds crawl out of its oceans onto the land to create a new race that will one day take to the stars."

Po sat in his command chair while his sister, Bri Ogden La, stood in front of him ordering the Trilobites throughout the vessel to prepare to enter the Speed Force. She wore a red robe that had a hood on it, and she stood approximately five feet seven inches in height. Most of the Trilobites were less than four feet tall. "Get on point, Vo," Bri Ogden La said, "We all think Gaia is beautiful, but we're preparing to enter the Speed Force."

"I'm ready," Vo said, "Let's do this!"

"Prepare the Trilobites to enter into the Speed Force," Po'Darro ordered.

"Crew, prepare to enter into the Speed Force," she said in her communicator. "She ah vog!" When she said, "She Ah Vog" she was saying "For mother" in the ancient language of the gods as well as the name of the vessel.

"If we die on this mission, then we die for our mother," Po'Darro said, "She ah vog!" He sat back in his command chair, and then said, "Take her into the Speed Force, brother."

"Yes, sir," Vo said.

When the She Ah Vog entered the mysterious Speed Force, the ship began to rattle as the orange glow encompassed the spacecraft. But when it came to Po's vessel, he knew it could take the change in planes. Suddenly, the ship jolted to the right and the occupants flew to the left. It happened so fast that it caught Po off guard, and then once the orange glow engulfed the entire ship, grogginess overtook the crew. "What's happening?" Po asked. "Are not Orion's calculations correct?" The Captain fell onto the ground and tried his best to stay awake, but the change in dimensions was too much for him.

The Phantom appeared hovering over Gaia, and Orion sat at the helm of the ship in her humanoid form. With the technology Ptah built her in the early days, she could download her conscience into a robotic life form or assume a holographic image of her former self. She watched the She Ah Vog as it entered into the Speed Force, and when the ship entered on the celestial plane, the Great Mother walked up behind her as she sat in the command chair. The Great Mother was in her natural form, the form of a Gorgon: snake hair and green skin. Orion sat in the command chair in her holographic form, and her disc was attached to the chest of the hologram. The Great Mother placed her right hand on Orion's shoulder as they watched Po's ship entering the Speed Force.

"You're feeling a certain way, but it's the only solution, Orion," the Great Mother said softly. "If Ptah found out he had children with Ro'Dan, he'd have to kill them. Only gods can have children with gods. It's the law. With them trapped inside the Speed Force, we never have to worry about him finding out about his unwanted offspring."

Orion-in her holographic form of a woman-walked across the room with her arms crossed. She looked down at the floor for a moment and then said, "I love those kids, mother, and to trap them in the Speed Force is just plain wrong. The guilt I feel for giving them bogus entry codes is killing me. Essentially, they are my kids and I betrayed them."

"Agreed. But we're of the rank of the gods," she said calmly, "The children of Ro'Dan can't exist in the realm of the gods. If not for your interference, Ptah would've found out about his offspring. You did the right thing because if he'd killed those kids, it would have hurt you beyond healing. This is the right course of action."

"What else could I've done?" She asked. "My mind is weakened from his constant mental attacks. If not for his mistress on Thanagar, I would not be able to withstand the power of his mind. Po, Vo, and Bri are my children, and I'd be damned if I let him execute them. Hiding them within the Speed Force is my only option because once he returns, no amount of trickery will stop his prying mind. If they are in the Speed Force, he can't reach them."

"You could just download your mind into a woman of his choosing, and allow him to elevate you to the level of a god," she said, "Why do you resist this?"

"I love Ptah, Mother," she said calmly, "But my need for his approval has passed. I have no desire to rule from the Celestial Kingdom by his side."

"So, you're planning on leaving once we have the Kryptonian problem solve?" The Great Mother asked.

She laughed for a moment. "That's the funny part. I'll never leave Ptah. I love him with all my heart, but he can never settle for me. He takes my mind from the Neuronet, and places it in different women throughout the universe. It's appalling. I will serve him until this shell rust, but he can never have me, only a cheap copy."

Current Time

Pump energized the clubs, activated a new police task force, and opened doors for a new wave of street chemists. After the Guardian obliterated the monster in Little Africa, the people on that side of town quickly picked up the loose vials of the drug and analyzed them at National City University (NCU). Each vial of the dangerous substance came with a digital breakdown of the foreign substance that the chemist followed to the letter; it was so easy to discern that anybody with a basic understanding of chemistry could make the dangerous substance. James had a vial of the drug with him when he arrived at the warehouse across from JJ's apartment. He placed the white substance into an analyzer that he retrieved from the DEO. It allowed for him to scrutinize the substance to see the ingredients. When he analyzed the drug, It placed a unique schematic of the chemical breakdown on the screen, and he knew within a matter of days, the production of the substance would began.

JJ stood on the other side of the room upgrading Vera's suit while James continued to study the drug. When he looked back at the young kid, he said, "This drug will change the face of society. It's worse than crack and heroin combined."

When JJ looked at the chemical breakdown on the screen, he pointed to one of the carbon atoms, and then said, "Change this molecule to a hydrogen and it gives the user the high and the lactation, but makes it virtually impossible to overdose on the substance. This way it becomes a party drug without a high rate of deaths."

"But you're saying there will be deaths?" James asked with a scowl on his visage.

"With the excessive lactation in both men and women and alcohol consumption-and the dancing, I suspect some will die of dehydration," he said, "The drug causes a deep, uncontrolled euphoria that last about eight hours."

Later in the day…

James took the chemical composition for the new drug and gave it to Winn to put on the dark web. He splattered the ingredients all over the web with JJ's warning about the possibility of dehydration and within weeks, people were getting the best high of their lives without overdosing. When it came to the Pump, he knew he couldn't stop the spread of the drug throughout the world, but he thought he could control the overdoses if the people used JJ's formula.

It was August twenty-third of twenty nineteen when James and Lena went to club Ritchie, an upscale dance spot in the south of Metropolis. The age group was twenty-five years and older, and when it came to dance clubs, he liked to party with the older crowds because the twenty-one crowd liked to start fights. When they walked up to the entrance, James showed his black card. Immediately, the bouncer let the couple into the bar, escorted them to a private suite, and they had two waitresses who waited on them the entire night. Lena pulled out her cellphone, held it up to James, and took a quick picture.

"What's that all about?" He asked with a smile. The ambiance of the club was one of high class. In the background played some nice, alternative rock.

"Memories," she said. She placed her phone on the table, and then the waitress came with their drinks. James had his apple martini and Lena drank straight bourbon. "So, tell me something?"

"What's that?" He asked.

"How did you get the footage of the Vulcan?" She asked with a calm disposition. "He basically ordered a major chemical company to pay him money for services rendered. Is that okay?"

James laughed, and then said, "He cleaned up a major chemical waste site. I think he's right to charge for his services."

"Superman works for free," she said, "So does Supergirl."

"Superman had his chance to clean up the spill, but chose not to do so. The Vulcan said he couldn't tolerate any chemical company poisoning the land. Just because he cleaned up Freeland doesn't liberate Downing Chemical from paying restitution for contaminating the area in the first place. The government might have given Downing a pass, but the Vulcan didn't."

"It's just I know their Financial Officer," she said, "They paid him one hundred and twenty million dollars so far."

"I actually read that," he said, "The Vulcan signed forty million over to Freeland."

"So, you're all for people with abilities making a profit off their abilities?" She asked.

"Why not? We live in a capitalistic society," he said, "He's using his skills to make a living like every other red-blooded American."

Lena set her drink on the table for a moment and James watched her closely. Her face contorted a bit, and then she said, "You seem to take up for the Vulcan quite a bit?"

"He's a good guy," he said calmly. He also thought he was a dick too, but he mostly thought he was a good guy. He was conflicted about the Vulcan. James eventually said after an awkward pause, "Well, overall he's a good guy, but he has dick-like ways."

Lena laughed for a moment. "Had to think about it, huh?" It's like you're not sure."

"He's got his idiosyncrasies," he said, "But he's a young man, the kind of man that you want with you instead of against you." He took a sip of his apple martini when he heard a gunshot vibrate throughout the entire club. Immediately, he grabbed Lena, pushed her out the club, and then the music came to an immediate halt. He then heard a thunderous roar of gunfire and then screams. The superman formula that merged with his DNA increased his rage and anger, and over the last six months, he had more episodes of uncontrollable rage. He pushed a button on his watch and donned the Guardian uniform within half a second.

When he stepped back into the club, he saw three men on either side of the room with sub machine guns pointed at the party goers. One of the men who had a beard that went down to his midsection had bright, scraggly red hair that caught his attention earlier when he walked into the club wearing an overcoat in the middle of the summer. He had an AK-Forty-Seven. At least six of the attendees were on the ground with bullet wounds in their midsections. He knelt down behind the banister near the entrance way and tried his best to compose himself, but the rage in his mind lingered.

"Now! Who else do I have to kill? Put all your money and belongings in this bag," The redheaded man screamed. He held up a black bag for all the people in the club to see. He passed the black bag to one of the party goers and then the guy took off his watch, threw it in the bag, and then his wallet. When he attempted to drop the wallet in the bag, it fell on the floor and then the redheaded guy shot him in the face. It enraged the Guardian so badly that he took off at super speed, ripped off the shooter's arm, and blood flew in every direction. He raced to the rear of the club at lightning speed and then back to the front, decapitating the other two men in the process. There were approximately five hundred people in the club, and they tripped over each other looking for the exits.

The Guardian looked back at the dead gunmen for a moment and knew immediately that he went against his own code of no killing. He couldn't believe what he had done, but he felt like he couldn't control it. The Superman formula was like a cancer in his veins that caused him to lose control. Quickly, he darted out the back of the club into the strong, eighty mile straight winds. He knew it was going to rain in Metropolis, but he didn't expect a heavy thunderstorm. The debris beat against his armor as he watched the straight-line winds tear roofs off the surrounding houses. In the distance, a little over a mile down the street, he could hear the police and ambulance sirens. The night air had a certain, uncomfortable heat and humidity to it. Suddenly, he saw an upside down funnel cloud about three miles away that was headed right for the club. It was like the skinny portion of the funnel cloud touched the skyline, and right where it ended, a spark of light came out of the heavens. It was the strangest thing he had ever seen in his entire life. With the power of the Superman formula, the Guardian took flight into the eye of the storm with the hopes he could break the massive tornado apart. For some reason, he noticed the monster funnel cloud spun in a clockwise motion which was bizarre in the northern hemisphere. Without thinking about it, he entered into the funnel and made an attempt to fly against it. He flew contrary to the direction of the upside down funnel cloud, and within fifteen seconds of his heroic flight, he felt a sonic boom. The force of the explosion caused him to stumble, and he fell into a thick forest of sapphire vegetation.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

(Oz)

The She Ah Vog flew erratically into the Speed Force because of Orion's miscalculations. Po knelt to one knee because the pain from the shifts in planes raced through every nerve of his body. Even with his godlike powers, he couldn't bear the pain. If he felt ill from the miscalculations, he assumed the weaker, ungodlike Trilobites would die from the dangerous radiation that penetrated the ship's hull. Pink, Trilobite blood dribbled from both of his eyes as he gasped for life, and a loud alarm on the front panel beeped loudly. Every breath he took caused pain. "Orion! Orion! Why hast thou tricked us?" He lamented as he placed both hands on the ground, and cried by his command chair. He felt a heavy weight on his chest as the ship crossed into the new plane. "All we wanted to do was save our Momma from the Speed Force, and bring her back to the Celestial Kingdom"

The temporal steel kept the occupants inside of the vessel virtually safe, at least from the harshness of space, but due to the miscalculations, crossing over to the Speed Force nearly stole the life of everybody on the ship. Po moaned as the temperature inside the vessel continued to rise, and blood dripped from his ears. All the occupants of the vessel were passed out on the deck and in their perspective areas, but not Po. The digital display had a blurry image of Orion on it, and she was in her holographic form.

"Is this your plan or the plan of the Great Mother to do this to us?" Po asked as blood continued to pour out of his eyes. "You'll do everything to protect Ptah and the La family image." He laughed for a moment. His voice was brittle and his lips quivered. "What does it matter now, Orion? What does any of this matter?" He said as he passed out on the floor.

The ship moved through the Speed Force at warp two for over six days before Po'Darro gained consciousness. Running over to the sink at the rear of the vessel he threw up in it and moaned for a moment. Pouring a cup of cool water over his sapphire face, he felt it would help him with the grogginess. It took him a moment to adjust to the lights on the deck, and then he noticed Orion on the screen.

"Po'Darro, I'm sorry, son, for giving you the incorrect codes to enter into the Speed Force safely."

Vo lay faced down on the floor, and when he rose to his feet, he wiped the dried, pink blood from his nose. He then asked, "Are you communicating with Orion?"

"No," Po said calmly, "It's Orion's hologram, but it's from the Neuronet. She has the same life memories as Orion. Oh. She's also a trickster and a liar."

"Don't think that my tricking you was a malicious act, Po," Orion's hologram said, "I did this to make sure Ptah wouldn't kill you the way the Great Father killed Veo and me nearly four million years ago." She paused for a moment, and then said, "Ptah was a young god in those days, and he loved Veo and me with all his heart. We were married on a planet called Dora, and he loved me in a way that I thought couldn't exist. But when the Great Father found out where I was, he killed my son and I. Ptah placed our minds in the Neuronet and then uploaded us into these sophisticated flying discs. Now, after all these years, Ptah is now more like the Great Father than he cares to admit. Ro'Dan has my mind. Even though she birthed you and your siblings, I consider you my children. And I'll be damned if I let him kill you while I have a say." Suddenly, the She Ah Vog came to an immediate stop. "If you look out your west viewport, you will see the planet called Ozario. This rock flows with milk and honey. It will nourish you and your descendants for eternity."

"What if we don't want to fly down there?" He asked. Looking at Orion's hologram with anger, he sat back in his command chair, interlocked his fingers, and sat his hands on his lap. Since he was dealing with her hologram, he didn't think she had any significant power. The real Orion was considered a god too. "Vo, prepare to jump to lightspeed!" He ordered.

"I anticipated you'd be defiant, Po," she said. She looked down at the ground for a moment and didn't make any facial expression at all. A loud explosion happened in the engine room, and the ship began a rapid descent to the planet. "Prepare your crew, Po," Orion's hologram said, "I've destroyed the engines of the She Ah Vog. Ozario will be your home for the rest of your lives."

Bri leaped to her feet and ran over to her chair. Immediately, she punched in several codes and then sighed. "Crew! We're making a crash landing. Strap in," She said over the intercom. "Po! Vo! Strap in! We'll hit the planet's surface in about two minutes."

"I'm sorry, my babies," Orion's image said calmly, "You will never be able to escape this world. I do this for the love I have for you."

Current Time:

James pushed the black button on his watch and his armor disappeared into a small backpack that he wore. Underneath the suit, he had on his loose-fitting club shirt and black, well-groomed dressed pants. His leather dress shoes weren't fit for the terrain, but he thought his enhancements would balance it out. If the clothes didn't suffice, he always had the ability to put back on his Guardian suit.

When it came to his Guardian persona, the Vulcan wanted James to continue to wear the suit even though he didn't think he needed it to protect him from bullets. Whenever James and JJ discussed the uniform, he stressed to James the importance of keeping up the Guardian image. His steel skin couldn't be penetrated by ordinary weaponry, at least not in the test Cadmus performed on him; they shot him with a fifty caliber machine gun and the bullets bounced off his chest. In addition, Supergirl slammed a tank into James, and it broke in half. He had proven that he had the Kryptonian, protective skin and strength.

According to the Vulcan, the Guardian was a symbol of what the human spirit could accomplish, at least before Rachel injected him with the Superman formula. He often put emphasis on the armor so the public would think the Guardian's armor protected him instead of him being imbued by the formula. As long as the people thought James was fully human, they would have hope. Even before JJ returned from Africa, he suggested James never let the world see him be other than a human being.

"The world has Supergirl, Superman, J'onn, and even me, but the human race can't identify with gods," he said with a grimace, "We defy gravity, bring people back to life, and do all these inhuman things, and it scares them. But you, James Olsen, you put on your armor and you keep it on. That way mankind always knows they have one of their own fighting for truth, justice, and constantly paving the way for humankind to grow better."

The Vulcan wanted the world to see James as a human being who stepped up and took responsibility for protecting his community. Unfortunately, James knew that most people couldn't relate to Supergirl or Superman because they weren't from Earth and couldn't bleed when living under a yellow sun. It was nearly impossible for the average human being to identify with them. But due to the future threats against the world, it was in James' best interest to take the Superman formula to give him the attributes of a Kryptonian. Due to the formula being highly experimental on humans, he had a hard time keeping his rage under control.

He looked around the sapphire forest for a moment and didn't recognize anything at all. All the plants had a blue hue to them that he couldn't identify. Not only was the terrain unrecognizable to him, but he didn't discern the stars and their patterns either. Everything around him seemed out of place, and as far as he could see, it was nothing but blue vegetation. He looked up into the sky, beyond the trees, and at the three moons, and then paused for a moment. "That's not right. That's not right at all," he said softly, "What world is this?" The night sky had a greenish glow, an emerald glimmer completely foreign to the world that raised him, but at the same time, he knew he wasn't on Earth any longer. It was obvious.

The trees stood tall and ominous, and in some ways, almost threatening. He could feel the heat, a humidity that felt oppressive in nature; it was the same heat he felt when he flew into the upside down funnel. Off in the distance, he heard some animals rustling around and howling, but he didn't recognize the species. For a moment, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and then used his powerful vision to see the unifacecorns off in the distance. "That can't be right," he whispered under his breath. He watched the white beasts with the one, long horn in the middle of their heads graze in the sapphire vegetation.

At first, he thought the tornado must've thrown him miles from the dance club because he didn't see it at all, but he quickly realized he must have gone through some kind of black hole in the verse. He heard JJ discuss the possibility of other dimensional gateways with Winn, but he ended up tuning out most of their nerd talk. He recalled JJ saying, "There are seventy-two-dimensional rifts on Earth and five in the continental United States, but he couldn't discern what was on tfacehe other end of any of them." At the time, he thought JJ was just bragging about his massive wealth of knowledge after receiving his memories from what he called the Neuronet. In fact, nothing looked like Metropolis, Kansas to him and that was disturbing. "Lena!" He screamed. His voice reverberated throughout the forest, and he noticed he didn't see one bird in the area. After yelling for a few minutes, he realized that she probably wasn't in the area, and if she was, then she wasn't conscious. He hoped that she'd have fallen through the same rift in space and time as him, but she didn't. He feared the cyclone might have overtaken the club and did what the murderers couldn't: kill everybody in it and around it. He had no way of knowing if his girlfriend was safe or not.

James flew straight up in the sky at the speed of sound, and as soon as he traveled about fifty feet up into the air, thousands of large locusts attacked him. When he flew about thirty feet into the air, he could hear the beasts' wings breaking the wind and causing a popping sound. By the time he found his footing, the wings of the creatures beat against his body and he knew he was in danger, so he kept flying. Even though the bugs couldn't penetrate his steel-like skin, the power of the wings slapped him in the chest and face, and it hurt. The stench of the beasts caused him to cringe; they clung to his body like they detected a pheromone and he tried to twist and turn to knock the animals off him. The creatures were about five feet in length and two feet thick with a wingspan about the size of a small car. They had front legs with crab-like pincers that they used as weapons and tried to penetrate his steel-like skin. One of the creatures grabbed onto his right ankle and the pain rushed to his head. At first, he thought he heard it crush his leg, but the animal's pincer fell off. He broke it trying to tear off James' right foot. He reached down, grabbed the animal by its thick head, and crushed it. It sounded like he was crushing wood with a machine. The putrid smell emanating from the animal was tantamount to a pile of elephant dung. When the brain matter dropped on his right pants leg, it ate through it like acid. It sounded like sausages cooking on the stove as the acidic goo ate through his clothes. He flew directly into a tarn about half a mile away from his location to wash the corrosive substance off his leg. It was the first time he dealt with a creature that had acid for blood. When he hit the pond, a large serpent-like reptile surfaced; it had three heads with six eyes and built like a Soviet tank. It dove into the water, and then when it re-surfaced, it had James in its mouth, shaking him like an old, ragged doll. "Let me go," he screamed. It tried to tear him apart, but the hero reached into the monster's mouth and tore off one of its heads. Its blood flew straight into the air and reddened the immediate area around the tarn. By killing one of its heads, it terminated the entire animal. It fell over next to the tarn and James collapsed on the right side of it.

"Olsen, you aren't in Kansas anymore, buddy," he said to himself as he lay on the ground next to the dead creature and looked up at the emerald sky. His right pants leg was completely missing at that point and he felt somewhat helpless. When he looked up into the night sky, at the emerald skyline, he could now see the swarm of large, deadly locusts patrolling. There were thousands of them, maybe even millions of them, and he knew there was no safe way to fly through that many beasts with acid for blood. In any case, he'd have to foot it instead of flying through the air. But off in the distance, approximately a mile down the road, he saw a house in the middle of a wide cornfield. Quickly, he washed off the dragon's blood and darted for the small cottage.

The three moons gave off enough light for him to see things clearly, and with the help of his enhanced vision, he could see the small, wooden cottage located in the middle of the cornfield. It gave him some relief knowing somebody else existed in the area. Immediately, James noticed the area was void of any birds or other flying creatures outside the locusts. He realized the flying beasts dominated the sky.

It looked like the occupants of the small dwelling had thick linen on the windows, keeping prying eyes from seeing inside, but James had the ability to see through the walls. When he looked inside the house with his x-ray vision, he saw a young woman with black hair putting a log on the fireplace. She had a soft visage, at least from where he stood. It was a medium-sized log that she let burn slowly. He watched her for only a moment. When he stepped onto the front porch of the wooden cottage, the lights turned on instantly. Due to the way the brightness hit him in the eyes, it caused him to squint. And when he did that, the young lady opened the front door with a laser rifle pointed directly at his face.

"What do you want, miscreant?" She asked with a scowl on her face. He could tell by her eyes that she had seen a lot of fighting in her life. Up close, her visage was stern, but she had a softness about her. "I won't pledge my loyalty to the Tin Man without some security." He stood in front of the woman with his missing, right pants leg, and tried not to aggravate the situation. He was still somewhat wet from falling in the tarn, but he wasn't dripping wet.

"I'm James Olsen," he said calmly as he noticed that the woman wasn't human at all. "What is this place? Who is this Tin Man?" He looked directly at the laser rifle and knew it wasn't anything like he had seen in the DEO. When he saw her, he made the assumption that she was indigenous to the planet and that he was a foreigner.

"Great Ptah!" She exclaimed, "Did you come through a rift in space and time too?" She lowered her weapon and then looked James over for a moment, astonished that she met a fellow traveler.

"I think so," he said with a grimace. Immediately, he noticed that she mention JJ's actual name, the name he used when he was a god known throughout the universe. "I was in Metropolis at one point and now I'm here."

When she invited him into the house, he noticed that she had ridges on her nose, pointy ears, green eyes, and thick eyebrows. Her complexion was light brown with long, straight black hair. A nice aroma of peaches reverberated throughout the entire house and it reminded him of JJ's crib. Other than that, she resembled Lena Luthor to a certain degree. "My name is Tre'Yan Pitnick. I'm from Vega Star," she said calmly, "I came here through a black hole nearly three years ago after the Battle of Vic Beg on Moxia. A laser blast damaged the warp core on my ship and I didn't have the power to escape the black hole that brought me here."

"I'm not familiar with any of those planets you named," he said with a grimace. "We have aliens on Earth who are refugees from around the galaxy, but we haven't conquered space travel yet."

"That's odd," she said, "The folklore from my planet plainly states that Ptah traveled to Earth to advance the huemonds eight hundred thousand years ago. In the old verse, he added the huemonds to the Neuronet before the entire race died out. He then put them on a planet called Gaia in the old text. I believe that was your Earth."

"I am human," he said calmly, "But I never heard such a story."

She laughed. "Your world must've been affected by the Great War in ways that stunted your growth," she said, "You should've been traveling in space for thousands of years now. If the huemonds have failed to advance, the Destroyer will eradicate your species and add it back to the Neuronet." He paused for a moment because he thought back to the reports about more people dying than being born. "The Destroyer doesn't eradicate life with violence. He uses a weaponized disease that impedes people from replenishing itself. Most worlds don't even know they've been chosen for annihilation until it's too late."

"That's happening now," he said, "It has begun on Earth."

"It's too bad," she said with a grimace, "A people can change and the Destroyer will rescind the plague. Unfortunately, I don't recall any race surviving the Destroyer's wrath according to my studies of the ancient text."

"What is this world with three moons?" James asked calmly.

"Ozario," she said with a smile. "We're on some kind of celestial plane that exists outside of time. It's like a prison inside the god containment unit called the Speed Force. There's really no way out. This entire world, this Speed Force, and all the planets within its wake are products of Ptah's technology. The inhabitants call this rock Oz."

"Wait? This is Oz, like in the Wizard of Oz?" He asked with a look of disbelief.

"Oh. You are from Earth so you're familiar with Dorothy Gale?" She asked. "Tavi said she returned to her world with the help of a witch, and they wrote a magical story about this place."

"That's right," he said, "I grew up on the story, but I thought it was pure fantasy."

She laughed for a moment, and then said, "Tavi talks about his adventures with Dorothy, that Earth lady, all the time. She actually left Oz and sold her story for a lot of money. As far as I know, she's the only person who ever left this plane, but she was a foolish girl and returned because of love." She smiled for a moment, and then said, "Love is a powerful drug. I think most creatures in the verse are fools for it."

"What happened to Dorothy?" James asked.

"The Tin Man," she said with a scowl on her face. "After he killed the Wizard, the Princess of Oz, and the Tins, he took the throne and ruled from Emerald City. Dorothy loved Tavi, but the Tin Man loved Dorothy. He killed her when she wouldn't take his hand in marriage and banned Tavi from the kingdom. When she returned, the Tin Man killed all his rivals and destroyed the machine that opened up rifts in space and time. It was all to keep Dorothy here. But when she didn't reciprocate his advances, he fed her to the water beast that lives in the tarn down the road."

"What's with the locusts?" He asked as he pointed up to the sky.

"The Tin Man's pet guards," she said with a grimace. "The only force against him are the witches who fly through the air on engine powered brooms. He ensures none of them can attack his kingdom from the sky. The locust and their corrosive venom would kill a witch within seconds of contact. He's a dictator." She turned the wooden log in the fire, and then said, "I was hoping with the power of Ptah that a rift in space and time would send me home." She laughed for a moment. "Well, in a few minutes I expect the Water Beast to feed on my corn," she said, "The Tin Man loves that creature and pays me a stipend to let it feed on my garden." She looked back at James for a moment, and then asked, "What happened to your pants leg?"

"One of the locusts attacked me," he said with a grimace.

"What? While you were on the ground?" She asked with a look of concern. "They never fly that low."

He paused for a moment and then said, "I flew…"

"Are you a warlock? Do you have an engine powered broom?" She asked as if she anticipated the answer to be yes.

"No," he said with a grimace. "Some beings can just fly."

She gasped for a moment. "Are you a celestial being like Ptah?" She asked.

"No," he said, "But I do know him."

She laughed. "You jest?" James sat on the couch and enjoyed the nice, peach aroma throughout the small home. Tre'Yan looked out the side window for a moment and then looked down at her watch on her left wrist. "Something isn't right," she said in her soft voice. She looked back at James, and then said, "The three-headed beast hasn't come for its nightly meal of corn." She walked across the room to a small round table near the kitchen. There was a vase on the table full of water. "Would you like some water to drink?"

"Yes," he said calmly. "What's wrong?" He asked. "You appear nervous."

She looked over at him with a nice smile and then said, "The three-headed monster hasn't come for its corn. I fear it might have killed one of the munchkins from the small village to the east of here." She paused for a moment and then sighed. "I hate when things don't go accordingly."

James knew he killed that beast but didn't want to say anything about it. Earlier, she said that the monster belonged to the Tin Man and he needed to know how committed she was to him before he revealed the beast was dead. "Maybe the munchkins slew it," he said.

She laughed for a moment, and then asked, "The Tin Man's pet? Nobody would do that knowing the consequences of such an action." She handed James the water and he gulped it down. "You're really thirsty, Mister Olsen."

"Yes, I am," he said with a smile. "I haven't had anything to drink for hours now."

"The monster could've nibbled from Tavi's corn, but I doubt it," she said, "He usually wouldn't eat from his farm until the next season." She sat on the couch with her glass of water and then said, "We usually try to give the three-headed monster what it needs to live without hunting," she said, "For example, I have unicorns on the edge of the property when he wants meat. That way he doesn't have to feed on the munchkins."

"Unicorns?" He asked.

"Yeah! I, too, was shocked by the unicorns because they had all died of a disease thousands of years ago in the Dark Corridor," she said, "It's written that Oa unleashed a plague that killed the unicorn population to hurt Ptah. In Vega Star's folklore, Ptah often fed on the flesh of the unicorns after a long day of courting the ladies. If the three-headed monster hasn't fed, then it'll feed on whatever it comes across."

After talking to her for nearly an hour, he realized that her love for Ptah perturbed him for some reason, especially since he knew JJ was Ptah. He didn't want to question her beliefs, but he wanted to understand her view of the god. "Is Ptah the primary deity on Vega Star?" He asked.

"Yes," she said with a smile. "He's responsible for the Speed Force. We believe when we've done bad deeds throughout life that our souls are trapped in the Speed Force for all eternity. All the worlds in the Dark Corridor worship Ptah on some level."

"So, you think he will save you?" James asked calmly.

"Either him or Orion," she said, "I often dream of them as all good people of Vega Star do."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

(CATCO)

Ozario-in the days of old-was a harsh planet with two suns that tortured the Trilobite's delicate, sapphire skin. Often, the suns caused severe blisters, rashes, and sometimes death from too much exposure to its deadly rays. The average daytime temperature in the warmer months was nearly one hundred and twenty degrees, but with the humidity, it made the place unbearable. Almost every day, right before the evening, it rained and mitigated the suns' dangerous rays. But when the three moons rose high in the sky, it alleviated all the pains from the suns, and the Trilobites worshipped the moons by calling the biggest one Ptah. The next moon they called Orion, but when it came to the smallest moon, they called it Ro'Dan.

Within the first few months, the dangerous rays of the sun killed three Trilobites, and Po immediately put out a law that nobody could work in the suns longer than fifteen minutes. But at the same time, several of the doomed crew grew increasingly sick because the suns' rays poisoned their delicate systems. Ku—one of the oldest Trilobites who ever lived—put out another edict that no Trilobite could work in the daytime, and all major activity happened in the night time under the three, beautiful moons.

When Po came with his assessment about the dangers of the suns, he demanded Ku pass a law that no Trilobite could work in direct sunlight. But when Ku suggested working under the moonlight only, it upset Po because he didn't come up with the plan.

"What gives you the right to make suggestions about when we work? You're incognizant, Ku," Po said with a grimace on his slender face. He walked over to the man he called father, and said, "I'm the captain on this mission. Respect that!"

"The mission ended when the ship crashed, Po," Ku said, "To think you can lead us without experience is foolish. Confide in me because I've lived a little."

Ku'Dan, a Trilobite who was nearly two hundred years old, was the first one to call the big moon after the god Ptah. He organized the other men and women to build a temple to Ptah, and even though Po objected, he built it anyway. The other Trilobites respected Ku because he was so much older than all the others, but looked younger than Vo. In his youth, he married a beautiful Trilobite princess named Ro Bri Ogden, of the Bri Ogden clan. She became Ro'Dan, but after sixty years of marriage to her, he felt he hadn't truly lived his life. She was nearly eighty-seven when she had a massive stroke, and lay on her deathbed. He stood by her side as she struggled in her last stages of life. Due to the pain of her dying, he took a walk in the Celestial Garden to clear his mind, when he overheard Ptah and Orion fighting over her rejecting to becoming a woman of flesh.

"You say you'd serve me until the end of time, but you won't become flesh for me?" Ptah asked in a condescending manner. Ku listened to them for a moment, and then Orion changed form into a holographic woman, back into a disc, and then back into a holographic woman. It was obvious that Ptah forced her to change forms because he often overstepped his boundaries with Orion.

"Quit!" She exclaimed. In her holographic, flesh form, she fell to one knee and looked stressed. "You violate me by entering into my mind, and forcing me to change! Respect me, Ptah! Can you just do that?" Slowly, she rose to her feet but had an angry visage.

"Is it too much to love me enough to take on the flesh?" He asked calmly, "After a long day of dealing with working on the Kryptonian formula, I want to hold and feel the warmth of your body against mine. Don't you remember what we had on Dora?" He glided to the other side of the holographic image of Orion, and then said, "Nearly twenty-eight thousand years ago, I promised the Great Mother that I'd fix her precious Kryptonians, but it's been long and tedious work. I've only yielded death with each iteration of the formula."

"Dora was nearly five million years ago," She said calmly, "Over ten thousand times I've become flesh for you, Ptah. I don't desire to go through that pain again, of living a life of flesh and feeling death creep up on me. In this metal casing, I never grow old. I never feel the pain of the flesh."

"But you also don't feel the joy of the flesh either," he quipped. "If I didn't save you and Veo for the purpose of returning to the flesh, then why did I upload your minds in these flying disc?" He asked. Ku couldn't help but noticed Ptah's snake-like hair crawling over his head, and on a few occasions, one of the snakes looked directly at him.

"For love, I thought," she said as she transformed back into the disc. She began to fly away when she said, "If your love for me is pure, then let me live my existence like this." Ptah looked down at the ground, sighed, and then watched her as she flew away.

Ku-an old and decrepit man-walked up to Ptah as he stood in the middle of the Celestial Garden, and now he could hear the serpents on his head hissing. It was a sign of his agitation. He wasn't happy over his spat with Orion, and Ku could tell by the way the god cursed under his breath. His anger was palpable. He stood in the middle of the garden with his hands behind his back, and his snake-like hair slithered around on his head, and at first, Ku didn't think Ptah recognized him.

"What do you want, Ku?" Ptah asked, "Don't you know I can see you through the eyes of the serpents? How dare you try to sneak around my Celestial Garden undetected listening to my entreaties?"

Ku dropped to one knee, bowed his head, and then said, "I overheard your argument with the Great Orion. It was a sad argument, indeed. The way you begged..."

"My communications with my wife aren't the concern of a lowly Trilobite," he snapped. Ku didn't know why he said what he said, but now he feared the god might kill him on the spot. "I know of the Dan clan, Ku, and every last one of you are trifling little maggots. My desires for Orion better not enter the ears of the other Trilobites. I'd strike you down where you stand."

The god stood tall, bold, and angry, and then Ku stood to his feet, and said, "For nearly sixty years I've been married to Ro'Dan, and she's at the end of her days. Maybe it's watching my wife die that has me not minding my tongue. I don't know. Her breathing is shallow and death is near."

"I'm sorry to hear that," he said as he stared at the unicorns off in the distance. They frolicked on the other end of the garden, and before noon time, Ptah would eat one for breakfast as he did every day. It was the way of things. "In her youth, she was the prettiest Trilobite on the ship. Her beauty was talked about among the gods." He laughed for a moment, and then said in a serious voice, "Trilobites die. It's the way of things."

"That's right," Ku said, "All the lowly Trilobites will taste death, but Ro'Dan was of the Baronial class. The council chose me because of my intelligence to marry Ro. I lived a life I didn't choose to live with her. It was the life the council chose for me."

"Indeed," Ptah said, "We don't always get the things we desire. The council thought Ro would be better with a Trilobite of your intelligence. I agree with their decision."

Ku bit his tongue for a moment, but he felt a great deal of frustration. He looked up at the god with snakes for hair, and then lamented. "Give me my youth, Lord?" He asked. "Let me live this lowly Trilobite life one more time, but under my own terms? I want to love who I want to love."

"What do you have to offer for this?" He asked. "Even on the Celestial Kingdom, nothing is free. Even the gods aren't permitted to love who they want to love."

"My wife," he said calmly. "She's dying. Her mind is feeble and childlike. You could download a copy of Orion's mind into her, and then turn her youthful again. After a long day of work, she can occupy your bed and give you the flesh you so desire."

"Get out of my garden, Ku!" Ptah screamed, "What kind of god do you think I am? We have rules against gods and Trilobites mixing." He paused for a moment, and the frustration on his visage was palpable. He looked directly at the old Trilobite, and said in an angry voice, "And if you come back, old Trilobite, I will strike you down where you stand. I might just send Orion to incinerate you in your sleep."

Ku walked nervously back into his chambers and watched his wife as she took her last breath. Ro'Dan lay on her deathbed, and her blue skin looked almost a pale gray; it was the number one sign that indicated a Trilobite was near death. Even though he felt like his life didn't have any meaning for the last sixty years, he loved his wife nonetheless. At the same time, his heart hurt because he felt he lost favor with Ptah over his proposal, and if the god did tell Orion to kill him, he knew he was good as dead. But now, he was in a position that disrespected all the Dans before him because of how he propositioned the Great Ptah. He held on to his wife's withered hands and cried as she took her last breath.

"Step away!" Orion said in a commanding voice. At first, he didn't know what to think because she appeared out of nowhere. He didn't know if she had been in the room the entire time. As soon as Ro'Dan took her last breath, Orion magically appeared in Ku's hovel, and landed on top of Ro'Dan's chest, and then said, "Back up, Ku!"

"What are you doing?" He asked with a grimace on his face. Stumbling backward, he fell on the chair at the end of the bed and then watched Orion as her lights flickered in the front of her casing. Since he knew he had upset Ptah, and then he threatened the old Trilobite in return, he thought Orion was there to kill him. "I didn't mean to disrespect our Lord."

"Calm down," she snapped, "I overheard what you said to Ptah," Orion said, "You're an idiot to offer your dying wife to a god. You know damn well the gods forbade any sexual relations with the lower-class beings." She paused for a moment, and then said, "But, we all know Ptah loves the flesh and defies the very laws he enacts."

"It's rumored he always takes a Trilobite paramour," he said calmly; it was almost in a whisper. "From as far back as I can remember, the women would dress up in the hopes Ptah would take one or twenty as a paramour."

Orion laughed for a moment, and then said, "He loves the flesh, indeed," she said, "But that isn't any of your business now." She planted prongs into Ro'Dan's chest. "Every thousand years, I give our Lord eighty years of me in the flesh, but I've grown tired. It's nothing more painful than growing old while Ptah remains young. He loves, but he loves hard. It's destructive to the soul. It's catastrophic to the flesh."

"What are you saying? We view you as a god," Ku said, "We pale in comparison to your greatness."

"I'm saying that Ptah expects me to become flesh soon, but I don't have the heart for it. Even though Ro'Dan will have my mind, a part of her will remain too. The two minds will live side by side in harmony." Suddenly, a ray of blue light shot out of her metal casing and then entered Ro'Dan's blue forehead. "I'm uploading her mind with my backup from the Neuronet."

As the beam went into her head, she began to transform into a young Trilobite, and her beautiful figure and face returned. "She's more lovely now than ever," Ku said with a smile. "She looks like the woman I first married."

Once Orion finished with her, she clamped onto Ku's chest and turned him into a young Trilobite too. The blue beam hit him in the middle of his forehead, and he could feel his skin tightening. It rejuvenated his entire body, and he looked no older than twenty-years-old. "Under no circumstance will you ever make an attempt to love Ro'Dan. She's for Ptah. As long as she's Ptah's paramour, you will never touch her."

Ku loved Ro'Dan, a love that would transcend time and space, but at the same time, he felt like he sacrificed himself for the old tradition of an arranged marriage. He looked at himself in the mirror and his youthful appearance amazed him. He stood less than five feet tall, but still a tall Trilobite nonetheless.

Trilobites-once considered the scourge of the Celestial Kingdom-often found themselves pleasing a god sexually in pretty much all dimensions where they existed. The gods often called sexual relations with a Trilobite "Trilo Love", and within the old verse, it was outlawed. But even Ptah, on several occasions, mated with a Trilobite who carried a copy of Orion's mind. This worried Ku because he didn't want anything to happen to Ro'Dan. But as soon as Orion finished transforming her into a youthful princess, she dressed her up and then presented her to him. At first, he didn't know how to handle what was happening, but at the same time, he knew he couldn't defy his Lord.

On the first outing of many with the Ptah, she returned two days later: hair in a mess and clothes ruffled. She sat in the corner of the hovel with her head between her knees and sobbed. The dress she wore had a tear right above the cleavage, and her cries sounded like a baby cooing.

"Why do you cry, Ro'Dan? You're blessed to please the chief god of the whole universe," he said with a calm look on his face.

"It's not I who cries," Ro'Dan said, "It's the other mind in my head that's crying. Her name is Rogue."

"You mean Orion's mind?" He asked.

"Yes. But she goes by Rogue now," she said, "She's upset because she didn't want to live this life again."

"She doesn't want to please our Lord? Rogue, why?" He asked.

"For four million years she's given her all to him, but he always wants more," she said, "She will live in me, but dormant."

After the first ten years of pleasing Ptah, Orion planned on sending Ro'Dan to another part of the galaxy. The fact that he took interest in one Trilobite over all the others was a bad omen, and Orion didn't like it. In addition, Ro'Dan had begun to show signs of aging because she worked on creating the Speed Force and curing the Kryptonian blithe with Ptah and Orion. Not only did she help them, but she also had to please Ptah on demand. Ro'Dan-as far as Ku knew-loved her Lord, but when Ptah refused to let Orion place her in another part of the Galaxy, Rogue surfaced. When Orion told Ro'Dan that she had to stay in the Celestial Kingdom, she said, "Good. I didn't want to leave in the first place."

"I did," Rogue said. Immediately, Orion changed into her holographic form and walked up to Ro'Dan. "You know the rules, Orion. Ro'Dan can't stay any longer. What will the other Trilobites think?"

"Who's speaking?" Orion asked.

"Rogue," she said.

"Oh. That's what you're calling yourself now?" She asked.

"It's a name that I chose out of protest," she said, "Protest to all of this nonsense. You turned us into Ptah's whore..."

"Watch your mouth, Rogue!" She exclaimed.

"Ladies?" Ku said.

"Shut up, Ku!" Rogue said, "The ladies are speaking."

"Well, Rogue," Orion said as she stood toe to toe with the Trilobite. She actually towered above her and looked at the top of the lady's head. "You'll do what I need you to do. You'll please him as I would please him. That's why I put my mind into this lowly Trilobite."

When Orion left, Rogue stood in the middle of her hovel for about two hours and stared at the floor. Ku didn't say a word but kept reading an old book on warp engine technology. Every few minutes, he'd look up at her, and then down at his book. Eventually, she said, "Every day is one day closer to death."

"That's like sixty years away," Ku said.

"Don't spoil the moment, Ku," Rogue said.

"Well, Rogue. Just play the game," he said.

"Rogue is gone," Ro'Dan said, "What happened?"

After about sixty years, Ro'Dan sat up in her bed and yawned. Her wrinkles were prominent on her forehead, and she sagged. Even in her old age, Ptah invited her and only her into his bed, and it was the way of things. But in her old age, Ro'Dan looked over at Ku, and said, "I'm tired. I've please Ptah for forty years now, and I'm ready to pass to the next life."

"You've been in that bed for three days without seeing our Lord," he said, "Won't Ptah be mad?"

"Let him," she said. "Orion can please him now." She laughed for a moment, and then said, "That stubborn bitch."

Ku gasped. "Rogue? Is that you?" He asked.

She pointed her right index finger at him with the thumb sticking straight up in the air, and then winked, "Yep."

Ro'Dan laid back on her bed, closed her eyes, and went to sleep, and as soon as she closed her eyes, a fresh scent of peaches permeated the air. He began to tremble because it meant Ptah was near. Quickly, he hopped up from his chair near Ro'Dan's bed and walked right into Ptah's crotch.

"Calm down, Ku," he said with a grimace. He tossed the little Trilobite to the side and climbed on top of Ro'Dan.

"What's happening?" Ro'Dan asked frantically. When he placed his large hands over her head, she went into a deep sleep.

Suddenly, a blue beam of light emanated from the god, and then both Ro'Dan and Ku turned young again. It happened quickly, and he didn't have time to adjust. When he finished with them, he turned to Ku and said, "You need to live this time. Find you a mate and love."

"Yes, Lord," he said calmly. "What about her?"

"I've always sensed Orion's mind inside of Ro'Dan," he said calmly. "I will keep her with me for all eternity."

Ptah became reckless in how he approached sex with Ro'Dan on the third iteration of her life; his love for her was genuine, but at the same time, the law was the law: a god and a lower life form couldn't create without grave consequences.

Ku sat in his hovel with three other Trilobite women, and they had wild sex to the early morning hours. The smell of sweat and drama was in the air, and when Ro'Dan walked into the hovel, she stood at the edge of the living room, and when Ku looked up at her, he noticed her stomach sticking out. It was barely visible, but since she had three kids nearly one hundred and seventy years earlier, he knew.

"Ladies, get up?" He said, "You gotta go." The Trilobite women slowly pulled themselves off the floor, and then he physically helped them out of the hovel. "I'll call you later." He pushed them out the front door, and they stumbled in the hallway. Quickly, he turned to his wife and placed his hands on her stomach. "You're pregnant?"

She looked at him for a moment, and tears raced down her face. "I fear he'll kill me and the baby." Pausing, she then said, "He can kill me, but I want the baby to live."

"Has he noticed?" He asked.

"I don't think so," she said, "But he touches every inch of my body every time we make love."

"Why doesn't he just take you through the apotheosis?" He asked.

"Because of the law," she said with a grimace. "We have to tell Orion."

When Ro'Dan was in her fifth month of the pregnancy, Ku, Orion, and Ro'Dan took the Phantom to Neo Star, a planet on the edge of space. The reason for the trip was because Orion needed some data to help with the digital scale of the Speed Force. It took approximately four months for the project to happen, and at the same time, Ro'Dan had her first child on Neo Star. When Ku saw the baby, he instantly fell in love with it and wanted to do everything in his power to protect it.

Ku named the child Po'Darro after an old friend who passed nearly two lifetimes ago. And after the birth of the child, Rogue surfaced more and more and did her best to spend as much time with Po as possible. Ro'Dan would show up to please Ptah and Rogue would show up to take care of the baby. After the first year, Ku fell deeply in love with Rogue because that was all he saw, and she fell in love with him.

So, when Ku'Dan named the biggest moon on Ozarrio after Ptah, it angered Po because he didn't care for his estranged father. Even though he never met him, he despised him nonetheless. Ku watched his son as he bit his lip, and agonized over the name of the largest moon in the sky.

In the background, the noise from the automatic hammers drilling in the nails reverberated throughout the area as the Trilobites built their cottages. The small hovels went up fast, and every inhabitant of the She Ah Vog had his own home. Most of the men assumed they'd all die out because Bri'Ogden La was the only female on the ship, and she was also a demigod. So, in other words, the only way for any future inhabitants of Ozarrio to know they existed was to build a monument to Ptah, and on the front of the moment was the three moons, and the names of Ptah, Orion, and Ro'Dan on the front.

"Father, why would you name the biggest moon after Ptah?" Po'Darro asked as he looked up at the plaque on the front of the monument. "He's the reason we're all lost on this rock." He folded his arms for a moment, and then looked down at his father. "Why do you still honor him?"

"We should look at Ozarrio as a blessing," Ku said as he patted his son on his lower back. He thought long and hard about his words before he spoke and then said, "The other Trilobites agree on the three names. Isn't it wise to go with the many instead of the one?"

Ku was much shorter than Po because he was full Trilobite while Po was part god, a demigod. He stood tall, nearly six feet in height, and anything related to Ptah incensed him. Ku knew it too, but at the same time, he never opposed Ptah or Orion, and even the thought of dishonoring them caused him great dismay.

"You might've been my father on the Celestial Kingdom, but I'm the leader here," he said, "I'll name the moons."

Ku recognized Po's hostility-jealousy and range-and it dismayed him to no end, but at the same time, he wouldn't let his son overrule the voice of the Trilobites. "The people have spoken. The name stands, Po," Ku said in a stern voice.

August 26, 2019…

JJ flew into James' office and sat in the far corner of the room, waiting for a discussion with him about life in general. Often, he dropped by his friend's office before school started just to chit chat and discuss his nightly patrols. He knew most of the team resented him on some level since he smashed in Lena's face, killing her instantly. Even though he brought her back to life, he knew it still bothered Supergirl because she saw exactly what he had done. But as far as JJ was concerned, he accomplished the mission with absolutely no casualties except for Kara's trust.

But at the same time, his perception about the world, about life in general, and about pretty much everything had changed dramatically. Before the Neuronet upgrade, the godspark impregnated him with confidence, but after the insertion of his old memories, he saw himself as Ptah, and JJ was more like a partner, a conscience within a conscience. The love for Orion and Veo was so powerful and ingrained that he couldn't see his life without them; they meant the world to him. He didn't know a time when they weren't in his life. It was important to point out that Orion and Veo came before all others, and without them, he wouldn't be much of anything.

He noticed the neatly stacked papers on James' desk, and from what he could tell, he hadn't been in the office the entire weekend. At first, he thought he was late for work, but since he was the CEO of Catco, it didn't matter. Kara walked past the office several times wearing a white dress with a pink, sweater-like top. She dressed conservatively all the time: hair in a ponytail, a cute pink or sky blue sweater with absolutely no cleavage showing, and a conservative dress that hung past her knees.

She walked into James' office, immediately grabbed a dart off the counter, and threw it into the picture of JJ, and said, "Take that."

"Ouch!" He exclaimed. "Do you always throw darts at my photo?" He asked calmly.

"Every golden opportunity I get," she said with a serious visage. Pushing her glasses closer to her eyes, she asked, "Where's James?"

He looked down at the neatly arranged desk, and said, "I don't know. I haven't seen him since Friday. He's probably tossing sheets with Lena or something. They bang like a couple of jackrabbits." He laughed for a moment until Kara complained about reminding her about James' relationship with Lena.

"You're a piece of shit, JJ," she said with an angry scowl on her fair face. Putting her hands on either hip, she accused him of interfering with their relationship. "You purposely used your little device to force a union between them. God or not, you don't have the right to do that!"

"I don't see a problem," he said.

"Freewill, JJ! Have you heard of it?" She asked. Walking directly over to the young man, she said, "You have all the freaking powers in the world, but you're using them to play matchmaker."

"Oh, please," he said, "James and Lena are happy as happy can be." He flew up over James' desk, and then set down near Kara. She immediately turned to see if anybody in the main editing room saw him, and then he said, "Even the Kryptonian mind can't escape the power of the gods, Kara," he said, "I know you love James."

"Don't be traipsing around in my head, JJ," she snapped.

"Like I have to," he said, "It's written all over your face every time you see them together. Well, you had your chance to be with him, but you blew it. Let him enjoy Lena and let Lena enjoy him."

"Just go," she said in frustration, "I have to get some work done. Can't be dilly-dallying with your ass all day."

"Have James call me later?" He asked calmly. "Oh. Peppermint is making sausage spaghetti for dinner tonight. Why don't you come by for a plate? Orion, Veo, Vera, Winn and Alex will be there."

"Okay," she said.

National City University…

JJ and Peppermint did a combination of high school and college classes all rolled into one class; they wandered through the hallways of the university and didn't really stand out that much except that he stood approximately six-foot-five inches. Several of the students dressed in the boxy, black clothing, long hair, and jewelry. In addition, it was extremely crowded in the school, at least forty thousand people attended college classes on a daily basis at National City University.

The hallways smelled new and the walls were freshly painted. The air conditioner hummed; it was almost like a song of comfort. The students plodded through the corridors and their steps sounded like a thousand soldiers marching off to war. It was a battle; it was college, and at the end of the day, not all of the students would survive to obtain the fruits of the war. It wasn't because they lacked intelligence, but life was hard. Some people had it easier while others struggled.

JJ was nearly six-foot-five inches and soared above most of the students in the school. He looked like a basketball player, a stellar athlete, but he wasn't. Looking around the hallway as Peppermint held him around the waist, he looked at all the successes and failures around him. At first, he didn't realize he was hopping from mind to mind like a swarm of angry gnats. There was so much pain in the brains of humans that he could barely take it all in. So many students knew pain on a personal level, and their home lives were havens of corruption. After he stole so many thoughts, he rushed out the side door to clear his head in the fresh air.

"What's wrong?" Peppermint asked with a grimace.

"I accidentally performed a mind rape on nearly a thousand people at once," he said with a befuddled look on his face. "There's a copious amount of pain in so many people. I had no idea the human race had so much bitterness in it. The thoughts were so random and disheartening that now I'm filled with hate and discontent."

She smirked. "You might as well eat doggy do," she said with a grimace, "The human mind is filled with sick, uncontrolled thoughts. Taking in that many random notions at once can only lead to madness."

He kissed her gently on the lips, and then said, "I'll have to do a better job with my powers."

Mickey-Macs…

Noontime came quickly after they finished their four college classes in the morning hours. JJ only had one more class left at Little Africa High and Peppermint had two. Unfortunately, all of Vera's classes were at Little Africa, but she also did a work-study between two and three at CATCO media. Since Vera moved in with them and didn't pay any rent, she had been nagging him to do more missions as Victory, but he was reluctant to let her be a hero. Often, Veo and her practiced combatives in the old warehouse across from his Momma's apartment building. She was a good, strong fighter, but the world was an increasingly dangerous place and he didn't want her getting hurt.

During the lunch break, JJ and Peppermint ate at Mickey-Mac's diner located in Little Africa on the Main Street of town in the middle of the city. The small bistro was much more than a local eatery to them, but a place they ate at since babies. His father often took him and Peppermint to the restaurant and the young kids would share a small burger and fries. Nothing had changed between the two of them since the god-sparks of Ptah and Sekhmet imbued them.

The bistro often smelled like sauteed onions, an aroma that he actually liked. Even with the soft music in the background, he could hear the burgers sizzling on the grill and Mickey singing to the song playing on the stereo. Three, thin waitresses took orders, but as usual, it wasn't really needed for JJ and Peppermint because they all knew them and their orders. One of the waitresses named Laura Amiga screamed out, "JJ and Peppermint are here."

"Okay! One fat Mickey-Mac burger, chocolate shake, and fries coming up," Mickey said loudly.

"Right on right on," Peppermint said loudly.

In the last year, after Peppermint had her baby, they bought a house about a mile down the street from their parents' apartment complex, and Orion and Veo usually kept an eye on the baby during the day. His mother normally worked the overnight shift at the hospital and needed her sleep in the day time; therefore, Orion decided to care for the child when Peppermint couldn't.

They shared one, large Mickey-Mac burger with fries and a chocolate shake, and then handed Laura a sizeable tip.

"Thanks, JJ," she said with a huge smile as she walked away from the table. "I was worried about this month's rent, but I'm good now."

Peppermint took a sip of the milkshake and then said, "Please be more discreet with your money. We don't want to draw any unwanted attention."

"You're right, but I knew she was having a problem making this month's rent, so I helped her out," he said calmly. "She's a hard working lady and deserves a hand up once in a while."

When he sat in the restaurant, he had his back to the door and she sat across from him. Directly above him and to the rear of the diner hung a large screen television set. Mickey had already sliced the burger in half for JJ and Peppermint, and then when he picked up his half to take a bite, he noticed a picture of Lena Luthor on the screen. Underneath her caption was the word, "Missing!"

"Something's wrong," he said calmly, "Lena is in the news and they're claiming she's missing."

"Didn't we see James on Thursday?" Peppermint asked with a look of concern on her face.

"Yeah," he said, "We were all hanging in the warehouse. I was telling Winn about the seventy-two gateways on Earth to other worlds. He pretty much called us a bunch of nerds, tuned us out, and continued to play video games."

"I remember now," she said, "It's funny how YOUR son takes all MY attention."

He looked at his fiancee for a moment, and then said, "I'm going to search for Lena using my telepathy."

"Okay," she said, "Just be careful because it takes a lot of energy."

He tapped his fingers on the table for a moment, looked down at the floor over his right shoulder and began to concentrate deeply. He used his telepathic ability to try to find Lena's mind and he had to jump through tons of interference to do it. Due to his genetic enhancements, he was able to scan millions of minds almost effortlessly an ascertain an understanding of any situation. He assumed he could extrapolate an understanding of what happened to Lena from other people in the area. For almost five minutes, he looked down at the table with a blank stare on his face. He saw her hanging on a branch in a highly vegetated area along Metropolis River. The branches held her above water, but she was unconscious. "I see her," he said calmly, "She's barely alive."

"What about James?" Peppermint asked.

"I haven't found any trace of him," he said, "It's like he's not on the planet. I can't keep up the constant memory probing for long periods of time without it draining me, but it's obvious a tornado barreled through the area."

"How do you feel now?" She asked.

"Drained," he said, "I've been trying to ascertain what happened on Friday in Metropolis, but I'm getting misinformation. I probed a guy named Kevin Michaels. He was thinking about some armed men robbing the club and then their body parts started falling off in front of his eyes. I attempted to slow down his thoughts and I could only see a blur racing through the club."

Peppermint chuckled. "That's crazy. Could it have been your son, Hermes?" She asked.

"I don't think so," he said calmly, "But we did detect a small tear in space and time over Metropolis. Captain Atom helped close it. Mister Michaels saw a tornado sweep the club away, but the image in his mind was an upside down funnel. It's bizarre," he said with a grimace. "In any case, the dude is obviously traumatized." He looked down at his wristwatch, pushed the black button labeled "M" and within seconds the Messiah was parked in front of the diner.

"Your class starts in an hour, babe," Peppermint said calmly.

"Yeah," he said, "It'll take only a few seconds to fish Lena out of the river and scrub it for any additional bodies. You go ahead and go to school and I'll make sure Lena is okay."

Metropolis River…

The Messiah landed right above Lena's location. He had her on a digital display inside the vehicle; it had the ability to detect all heat signatures in the area and he could see her hanging on a strong branch. With the power of his mind, he tried to awaken her, but she was in a coma. When he landed the flying car, he stepped out of it and looked over at the river for a moment. The water moved rapidly from east to west. Deep at the bottom of the river, he could see the bodies caught on rocks. Some of them were beaten badly by the tornado, but they all appeared to be intact.

When he walked over to the edge, the branch that held Lena grabbed her around the waist and brought her to him. He didn't expect that to happen, but he remembered he did have powers over many things in nature. He felt her forehead with the back of his right hand and it was still warm. She was alive, but barely. He raced back over to the edge of the river and used his powers to lift all the water into the sky, and then weeded out eight more bodies, but none of them were James. All the people died sometime on Friday evening so he had time to revive them without breaking any celestial laws. Reviving a body after three days required the re-insertion of a soul, and that usually meant he had to find a soul in the netherworld which was a tricky, dangerous, and dirty process.

He dug a huge hole in the ground with the power of his mind. With one thought, a large swath of dirt flew into the air and left a huge hole in the ground. It was deep. He filled it with water from the river, and then tossed the bodies into it, including Lena, and he moved quickly too. It was happening so fast that it was hard to make out everything he was doing. When he walked into the water completely nude, his energy reverberated throughout the water like electrical currents and began to restore life. When he left out of the pool, the energy continued to restore life and heal Lena. He left the area so people wouldn't know the role he played in bringing people back to life.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Guardian Year 2 Chapter Six Preface

Ten years passed since the She Ah Vog crashed landed on Ozarrio, and life had changed dramatically for the Trilobite people. The suns continued to beat the men nearly to death in the summer months, but they found comfort in one another. At night, after the men finished with their duties, they'd huddle in the public showers, bathe each other, and engage in sex. Without the comfort of women, the men looked at the other men for pleasure, and it became the norm. In their minds, it didn't matter because the Trilobites wouldn't be able to survive without the females of the species. They considered themselves as doomed people.

Ku—on the other hand—had grown tired and wanted to populate Ozarrio with other Trilobites or at least one hundred Gidisons, and the only way to do that was to get a message to Orion. When the men began engaging in homosexual activities, it caught the older man off guard. He didn't know how to address the issue, and then after a while, he just let it slide.

But at night, when all the other Trilobites slept, Ku interacted with the hologram of Orion inside the broken vessel. Due to her influence on the other crew members, Po had set the ship off limits to all except for the Trilobites in his inner circle. The main Trilobites were Ku, Bri, Vo, and of course Po, the self-appointed leader of them all. He worried because the males lost their way, and became dismayed due to the lack of female interaction. The only woman on the entire planet was Bri'Ogden, and due to her vast powers, the Trilobites feared her.

The She Ah Vog's wreckage set off in the distance, some two miles away from the main village and on a small hill. The portion of the ship with the artificial intelligence in it was sunk deep into the hill, and Ku with the help of a young Trilobite named J'Piana dug out an entrance way to the vessel. On the left side of the entrance way to the ship, Ku placed a statue of Ptah, a warning to any Trilobite who might venture into the old wreckage by accident.

During the early years, when Ku and J'Piana dug out an entrance way to the ship, the older Trilobite broke off a piece of the ship's hull, a piece of metal that contained temporal steel. The back end of the metal object was thick while the front half was thin, and in Ku's mind, it resembled an ax's head. After fastening a wooden handle on the blade, he carried it close to his side and used it to cut down trees for hovels.

When Ku entered into the She Ah Vog, he was usually looking for knowledge on solving a complex problem within the Trilobite community. Needless to say, he wanted some counseling on what to do about homosexual activity in the community. Often, he looked into the memory banks of the ship that had knowledge on most of the Trilobite history, including the Trilobites who lived in the Old Verse. One sect of Trilobites who lived on Tinta Star was called the Moonchickians. In the old verse, they were industrious people who were capable of warp technology. But at the same time, Ptah freed them from all their obligations to the Celestial Kingdom and allowed them to create for themselves instead of adhering to the ancient, Trilobite principles. According to the text of old, the Moonchickians handled their freedom from the Celestial Kingdom with great care, and still honored Ptah in all the things they did. Ku admired them.

When he entered into the old ship, he walked over to the front panel, pushed several buttons, and then the lights flickered for a few seconds. "Come on, old gal," he said under his breath. Orion's image appeared in front of him, a Siren from the old days. Her original form was that of an albino Siren, and she married Ptah when he was a young god. She was in her holographic form, a form pleasing to the eyes.

"In time, other aliens will land on Ozarrio, Ku," she said as she stood in front of him with her arms crossed. "This includes other Trilobites." She walked over to the main panel, raked her right index finger across it, and then looked at the dust on her right index finger. "As technology advances across the verse, beings will break the laws of space and time. When that happens, the Speed Force will imprison them."

"But it's been ten years, and we haven't seen any other creatures on this world except for us," he said with a grimace. "Even I didn't expect this degree of loneliness when you came up with this plan."

She smiled. It looked as if she was in deep thought for a moment, and then she said, "When Ptah built this place, he made it to survive. Others will come. You just need to make sure you have a structure in place for them."

The hologram of Orion glided across the floor, reached underneath the rear counter, and pulled out a box of silver balls. He watched her closely as she pushed the button on top of the ball, twisted it once, and then a red glow encompassed it. "Dear, Orion. Will you send more Trilobites to Ozarrio?" She said. Looking over at Ku, she said, "These balls are designed to traverse time and space." She paused for a moment, and then said, "Orion will send others since the Trilobites have built a community of hovels."

"But without women, we will die out," he said with sadness on his visage, "The men have turned to the other men for comfort."

The hologram of Orion smiled gently. "Ku, take this orb and release it outside. It will find a tear in the verse and then find Orion. If she receives this, she'll send more people. Meanwhile, I expect the men to find comfort in each other. You're of the flesh, and need other fleshy contacts."

He held the orb in his hand for a moment, and then asked, "But who would want to come here? Ozarrio is a prison."

"You turned Ozarrio into your world. Made it beautiful," she said, "Soon beings of all races will live here."

He looked down at the ground for a moment and then thought about some of the things he read about the Moonchickians, an old Trilobite race from the old verse. Due to the fact he had taken a liking to another Trilobite, he felt somewhat worried about what he had read in some of the ancient laws. "As you know, the Moonchickians was another race of Trilobites who lived outside the rules of the Celestial Kingdom."

"That's correct," she said as she looked on with a bit of confusion.

"But in their laws, they prohibited love between two male Moonchickians," he said, "But…"

She sighed, and then said, "They had something you don't, Ku. They had an abundance of women on their world."

Three Years Later:

Ku-now an older man-tilled the land with three other Trilobites while the other people in the community worked on their trades. From the looks of Ku's face, he hadn't aged much at all. He planted corn on the northern area of his property while some of the other men picked Booshi fruit to make alcoholic drinks for the winter months. The fruits on Ozarrio tasted as if they were picked out of the garden on the Celestial Kingdom. The Booshi trees lined the lake and most of the Trilobites spent a full day picking the delicious eats. All the Trilobites including Po's inner circle enjoyed picking the fruits by hand; it was an honor to pick the finest Booshi fruit by hand because it made the tastiest wine.

Ku sat on a rock that set near his cornfield and it was a few minutes right before dark. He had a blood red Booshi fruit in his right hand, and then when he bit into it, the red juice raced down his chin. He had a lot on his mind, but it didn't have anything to do with the fact that the Trilobite people wouldn't grow. He had given up on the orb contacting Orion and found comfort with a Trilobite named J'Piana, a young man who was only ten-years-old when the She Ah Vog crashed on Ozarrio. The young Trilobite helped him build the entrance way for the She Ah Vog, several hovels, and harvest the corn on his farm. In those days, the gods had not set laws on homosexuality because they didn't interfere in the ways of the flesh unless the flesh infringed upon the laws of the gods. However, he had access to ancient, Trilobite text from a race of Trilobites called the Moonchickians; they prohibited homosexual relationships.

When J'Piana walked past Ku, the old Trilobite grabbed the younger one and hugged him deeply. "I've loved women for four lifetimes, and have never felt love like this," he said, "I once prayed for Ptah to send us some female flesh, but now it doesn't matter. The connection I feel for you goes beyond anything I ever felt for anybody."

In the old world, J'Piana's was from the lowest clan on the Celestial Kingdom called the Antipodal Class, a class of dirt eaters. They didn't literally eat dirt, but they worked in the minds of the Celestial Kingdom and did the dirtiest jobs throughout the universe. But at the same time, nobody who wanted to find a companion on Ozarrio could afford to discriminate based on the class system.

"I want you all to myself," Ku said as he whispered into the man's ear.

J'Piana laughed, and then said, "And forsaken Po?"

"How many others are there?" He asked.

"I'm of the Antipodal Class and not privy to the word no," he said with a crooked smile. "I've only known the pain of sex and never the pleasure. But you know this?"

"None of that applies here," he said with a grimace, "You can choose who to please and who not to please."

Suddenly, the sky opened about a mile up in the air and on the other end of it was the blackness of space. It was the first time something like that happened since the She Ah Vog crashed landed on Ozarrio. Quickly, J'Piana held on to Ku's right arm, and then said, "By the gods!"

At first, Ku didn't know what to expect, but out of nowhere, a fiery ship entered through the blackness in the sky and began a dramatic descent to the planet. Out of nowhere, Po and Vo took flight under their own volition and intercepted the ship. They brought it safely to the ground.

"And now you see why I can't say no to Po," he said, "He's of the gods."

Ozzario: Current Time

The sapphire vegetation almost hid the unicorns as they fed on the three-headed beast near the large tarn. The dragon's body was strewn all over the ground, and the unicorns pretty much wallowed in the mess. They were beautiful creatures, the lost beast of Ptah's, standing approximately seven feet in height with elongated faces, and one silver, magical horn atop their heads. Orion protected the unicorns from the plague that wiped out most of the beast during Ptah's rest. It was the best she could do for her eternal lover: protect his favorite source of nutrition.

The unicorns that frolicked in Munchkin Land were almost snow white in color with blue eyes and were referred to as Ptah's Flock in the old days. The two, bright yellow suns and the frequent rainfalls gave a certain beauty to Munchkinland. In the tarn, a few Sirens lived, but they were playmates for the three-headed beast. Most of the sirens resided in the lakes to the east of Munchkinland, and Orion hid them from the Great Father nearly twenty thousand years earlier. Rarely did they come to the surface unless they depleted their food supply.

The Tin Man looked menacing: blood colored eyes, an oil funnel atop his head, tilted to the left side, and muscular appendages made of iron, but it was more than a mere look, it was who he was. Everywhere he traveled the people feared him because he wore the Tins as his armor, a race of metals that stood against him in the Metal Wars. They were a race of metals banished to Ozario nearly one point two million years ago by Ptah in the Great War. He sent them into the Speed Force, and let the prison for the gods decide their destination. Two races of metals ended up on the planet for trying to engage in illegal time travel: the Tins and the Irons.

But when it came to the Tin Man, he wasn't of either race. He was made metal, a cast iron metal that often rusted without the proper oil treatment. His eyes were like two, cherry emeralds and filled the hardest of men's souls with fear. He was heartless and it showed in his visage, and when he looked at the beast feeding on his dragon friend, he clenched his fist. It pained him. The Tin Man stood at the tarn with an angry mug and with his fist clenched up against his metal hips; it was nothing more than a pond on top of a hill, but it was the home of his friend, Randolph. Honestly, it was a little bigger than a pond, but more the size of a lake. His worn countenance saw many wars over the last one hundred years, and since he took over Oz, he constantly had threats from all the kingdoms throughout the valley. But when he saw his precious, three-headed friend that he called Randolph dead on the side of the tarn, it enraged him, and all he could think about was destroying the Munchkins who killed him. He saw it as a direct attack on his empire and he wanted the wrongdoers to pay with their lives.

The unicorns continued to feed on the dead flesh of Randolph, and as they ate, the Tin Man noticed them watching him. They were devouring the dragon's body out of revenge for the way it often attacked them. He could hear the constant masticating, and it was an annoyance, to say the least. The beast came from all over Munchkinland to feed on Randolph; they came from every corner of Munchkinland to take revenge on the dead beast, and as they ate, The Tin Man noticed how they would take a bite of flesh, and then watch him. It was no secret that the unicorns hated Randolph because he often fed on them out of spite. There must have been thirty unicorns tearing at the flesh of the three-headed beast, but when the Tin Man grew enraged, a powerful laser appeared on his right shoulder. It made a clicking noise as it powered up. At first, he had his teeth clenched as he put the laser sight on the first unicorn, and then as he prepared to fire, he relaxed his thin lips. "If Ptah doesn't want me killing his special flock, he shouldn't have made them savages." Suddenly, the laser-set on rapid fire-tore through the unicorns, killing them all, and then he laughed at the carnage he caused. One of the men in the special envoy walked over to him, gave him a glass of a black liquid. He drank it quickly.

"Yes!" The Tin Man exclaimed, "That's some of the best crudes on the planet." Atop his hoverboard, he turned to the rest of his entourage, and said, "I will make the Munchins pay for this." He wiped the black crude from his lips and then held his right hand in the air. Pointing eastward, the group of soldiers began to advance. He once promised to leave the Munchkins alone and not retaliate against them for letting his body rust in the middle of the theme park over a hundred years earlier. They had every opportunity to free him through the years but chose not to do so. He hated them. And due to the death of Randolph, he now had a reason to enter into their kingdom and revenge the death of his old friend.

The Tin Man rolled with the entourage of security on hoverboards made by the Royal Scientist, Theodore Windue, of Oz. He had the biggest hoverboard with two, automatic laser rifles on the front of it. With four, Ironmen in front of him, one on either side and six to the rear, they flew through the sapphire vegetation. He didn't have any Tins on his detail because he didn't think they could be trusted. From the rumors that simmered in his kingdom, the Tins wanted revenge for their comrades that he wore as armor.

Due to the locusts, they didn't fly high into the sky on their hoverboards but levitated approximately four feet off the ground. He had a device that allowed him to control the locust to a certain degree. Without the device, the locust would attack him just as easy as they would anybody who tried to fly in Oz. But due to the threats against his kingdom, he needed the locust; therefore, he always made sure that Theodore Windue had the best women, best food, and best shelter in Oz because only he could replenish their ranks.

He stopped his entourage in front of the deadly poppy field about six miles from the main, Munchkin village. They were beautiful to the eyes as they grew uniformly throughout the area. The poppies were plentiful and had a deadly, spicy scent to them that was pleasant and hypnotic to most creatures except for the unicorns. One of his soldiers placed on a gas mask, picked one of the poppies and returned to the convoy. "Mix my potion," the Tin Man ordered with a grimace on his face. He could smell the sweet scent of the poppies, and he then ordered the soldier to the back of the envoy to mix his potion. Too much of the sweet aroma would debilitate the entire envoy for over eight hours. With a bit of salt and carbon, the gas became extremely potent and turned into a deadly toxin that would kill the Munchkins on wholesale. At one point in his life, he'd have killed himself before he harmed a Munchkin for they were his people. When he was a mortal man of flesh and bone, he had a great passion for his village. He stood tall, proud, and dedicated to his people, and he loved deeply. Back in the day, some one hundred and eighty years earlier, he went by the name of Nick Chopper, a strong, buff woodsman with a passion for romance. He was the son of the King of Oz but decided to abandon his royal blood for the commoners. But upon his departure from the kingdom, his father gave him an ax made with temporal metal from the ship that brought the Munchkin's to Oz over a million years earlier.

He loved a girl named Mary Bloodsworth who worked for the Wicked Witch of the West, Beatrice Soulless and lived in the Munchkin village almost on the dividing line between East and West Oz. Nick stood approximately sixty-three inches, broad shoulders, and strong. Without question, he knew how to wield an ax with the best Munchkin men in all of Oz and often competed in ax competitions where he was always victorious. The temporal steel had the power to cut through anything, including Kryptonian skin under a yellow sun. Unfortunately, he didn't know Beatrice Soulless had an evil eye for him, and one day after he made love to Mary on a warm night before the rainy season started, Beatrice tried to trick him into coitus on the edge of the wood line between East and West Oz. All Nick wanted to do was urinate in the bushes about half a click from his small cottage that he shared with Mary. He had on his overalls and carried his ax as all good woodsmen did. But when he pulled out his phallus to use the bathroom, he felt a rough and scaly hand on it. It jarred him out of whatever daze he was in at the time and he stumbled backward causing urine to splash all over his clothes and the ax to fall to the ground by his right leg.

"What trickery is this?" Nick asked as he tried to find his composure. "Mary is the only gal for me."

"Are you rebuffing my advances?" She asked with a snarl on her face.

"Indeed I am," he said.

He watched the witch pick up the ax and say a few words over it. It glowed bright like the sun for a moment, and then she dropped it to the ground and the effulgence around the ax dissipated. He didn't think anything about it at the time because she merely walked away as nothing happened. He put away his phallus, picked up his wood chopping tool, and headed back to his cottage. It wouldn't be until a few months later during the New Harvest when the little Munchkin kids picked blueberries for pies that would be sold at the fair that the ax attack happened. He had been chopping down a couple of trees so there would be enough wood for the cold, winter months. The kids frolicked about down the hill and had stained hands from picking blueberries for almost the whole day. Nick set his tool against the bundle of chopped wood when he reached in his satchel for a wad of tobacco. He stuck a chew in his mouth and relished the flavor for only a moment when all of a sudden he felt pain in his right shoulder.

"What the hell!?" He screamed. When he looked back, he saw his ax chopping away at his right arm without anybody wielding it. He screamed as loud as he could and the villagers came running for his location, but when they saw what was happening, they all knew it was the work of an evil entity and didn't help him out of fear and selfishness.

"You're cursed, Nick," Leroy Dungcatcher screamed. By the time the ax finished chopping off his limbs, there was only a head and a trunk with no appendages. He lay on the ground in excruciating pain and didn't have the ability to crawl, walk, or run. The ax fell to the ground, and Leroy Dungcatcher screamed, "Get away from him or you'll be cursed too!" For the remainder of the day plus two more days, his fellow Munchkins left him to die in the middle of the field, but he didn't die.

Nick moaned, but nobody came. He begged for help, but none was given. He offered them the money he had saved up for his wedding, but even his fiance abandoned him in his time of need. He grew angry as the sun beat down on his unprotected skin. His face peeled and he felt the agony of his demise taunting him. He cried for a quick death, but it didn't come. Eventually, after he spent two days screaming for help, Ku Klip, a master of metals and electronics picked up his body. He was a short Munchkin, a Munchkin who knew how to make functioning limbs and could make Nick whole.

"What good was a woodsman who can't chop wood?" Asked Ku Klip as he prepared Nick for the operation. He chewed on a piece of black jerky made from the brown unicorns from the north.

As Nick lay in Ku Klip's laboratory, he begged for the master of metals to kill him, for it was the only relief he could understand. "If you could just cut my throat, it would put me out of my misery, Ku. It's the right thing to do."

But the master of metals was a stubborn Munchkin, the kind of Munchkin who never gave up on the limbless man. "And spit in the face of Ptah?" He asked. "I honor my Lord by keeping his child alive and whole. Are you not of the bloodline of our Lord?"

Nick laughed cautiously, and then said in a broken voice, "That I am, but Ptah will never accept me like this. I have metal arms, metal legs, and a heart that pumps crude instead of the royal blood. How will I ever be allowed in the Celestial Kingdom now?"

Ku looked at Nick for a moment, and then said softly, "Because Ptah is a just god, and his heart, Orion, helps him make the wisest decisions."

When he returned to his village, he now stood nearly seven feet in height, but with Ku Klip's wise words, he felt good about his new limbs. His legs were like massive tree trunks and powerful. He came to his fiancee and she hugged him around his waist without having to bend down, but it was the only time she hugged him. It was nearly two weeks later and due to his metal parts, she hadn't held him or made love to him once. He longed for her to cuddle with him, and massage the only fleshy part he had left: his penis.

Nick watched her as she washed some clothes in front of his small cottage. It was a warm summer day and she wore one of her spring dresses. Even though her dress covered her ample bosom, he could see more of her cleavage than usual. He became aroused, almost aggressive in his lust for his fiance. He could hear his metal heart pumping the crude through his body, and he stood in front of her fully erect. Quickly, he took her into his small cottage and tried to have sex with her, but she couldn't see past his metal parts. The way they sounded, looked and felt made her want to cringe.

"The steel is uncomfortable, Nick," she lamented as he gently slid his ice-cold hands across her bosom. It broke his heart the way she flinched when he touched her. "I'm not comfortable with any of this. I'm flesh and you're metal. Don't you belong with the Irons?" Slowly, he lifted off his fiancee and sat on the edge of the bed. He thought about the Irons for only a split second, and the regained his focus. "Maybe Ku Klip can put a heater in your hands and that would make it all the better for me."

He laughed for a moment, and then said, "I'm barely a Munchkin." He brought his hands up to his face, looked at his iron fingers, and lamented. "I'm a disgrace to Ptah. The only appendage I have left is my phallus, but what good is it if you won't touch me? Am I not still Nick Chopper?"

"It's not you," she said with a grimace, "It's this steel. It's so un-Munchkin-like. How can you ask me to see past all this? You left here a small Munchkin and now you're a massive metal machine. Even your beautiful, Munchkin flesh has become steel-like." She touched his face for a moment and began to weep. "I must go, Nick." She stood by the door for a moment, and then looked back at him, and said, "It would be best if we never see each other again."

Mary left, but he sat on the edge of the bed with a fleshy heart turning slowly into steel. It was like the metal was alive and it began to change the color of his skin from a light blue to a shiny silver. He looked into the vanity mirror in his bedroom and the sight of his face pained him. He slammed his steel, right fist into the mirror and it shattered into a thousand pieces. "My Ptah! My Ptah! Why have you forsaken me?" He screamed right before he ran out of his cottage into the torrential rains and made it to the edge of Munchkin Country where he just stood looking into the wilderness. Eventually, he wouldn't be able to move, and he watched the land evolve around him for the next forty years. The Munchkins erected a park around him and he watched as the children played on him, but it wasn't until Dorothy Gal discovered him twenty years later that he had the willpower to leave. She gave him hope after he had lost everything.

The Tin Man hated the Munchkins on a personal level and considered their existence a necessary evil, but he wanted a whole lot of them dead. He remembered their cowardice in the face of evil like it just happened, but he had been the Tin Man nearly one hundred and eighty years now. In the early days, he was made of pure iron, but before he killed Dorothy Gal, he had a tin coating placed over his metal parts, and it made him rust proof. When his entourage entered into his old village, the children frolicked in the sapphire grass. Everything looked peaceful.

When the townspeople saw it was the King of Oz, the Tin Man, they ran to him and tried to show him the respect of his position, but the dictator didn't recognize their homage to him. Clenching his teeth for a moment and then swallowing slowly, he looked at his former people without any remorse or pity. The hate in his visage was palpable. "Randolph is dead," he said loudly. "I want the head of the Munchkin who killed my friend."

Mary, now a much older and wiser woman stepped up to the Tin Man, and said, "Oh wise and sagacious ruler, none of us went near Randolph. He comes to feed on our corn and then leaves. We don't bother him, even though he ate the Miller's child." The Tin Man reached into his satchel, pulled out a wad of tobacco, and chewed it slowly. He looked at Mary in her soft, green Munchkin eyes, and spit on the ground in front of her. His old fiance stepped backward, and then said, "Oh, Nick. I was so wrong how I treated you all those years ago…"

"Shut up!" He exclaimed, "Don't you ever say the name my father gave me. It's forbidden," he said as the tobacco juices dripped off his bottom lip. He hated Mary so badly that the sight of her caused his heart of steel to feel pain. The laser attached to his right shoulder came online and placed a red dot on her chest.

"Am I not worthy of your mercy, Master?" She asked as she fell to her knees, "I have two boys who need their Momma. They lost their father working in the mines to the north. Have mercy on your people, Lord?"


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The Death of J'Piana...

The demigods placed the large, alien vessel on the ground to the east of the village. A stream of black smoke lined the blue sky following the ship like a lost child, and Ku and J'Piana couldn't wait to see the creatures who piloted the burning vessel. To welcome strangers terrified and intrigued Ku, but he didn't let anybody know his innermost fears, not even J'Piana. For over fifteen years, the Trilobites were alone on Ozarrio, and now out of nowhere, an alien vessel broke through the Speed Force barrier, meaning they'd be trapped on the planet for eternity.

For years, he prayed to Ptah for an alien vessel to break through the barrier, and now that it had, he felt insecure about everything. The feelings he once had for the females of his species passed, an issue he never dreamed of having. The ship-large and sleek-darkened the sky, and it looked like nearly one hundred crew members would fit on it nicely. He was familiar with the ship, a ship that was part of Ptah's fleet called the Dragon Fleet. It was the Imperial Dragon, a vessel that Ptah decommissioned after the collapse of the old verse. But when Po guided the ship to the ground, he quickly started escorting a large, but young group of female Trilobites off the vessel. And once he cleared the women off the ship, it began to dissolve in front of his eyes, and he knew that Orion was behind the ladies crash landing onto the planet.

Darkness fell upon the community quickly once the ship dissolved; it was as if the night overtook the day, and the three moons took away the harshness of the two suns. The men surrounded the women in an instance, and barely gave them enough room to breathe. It had been fifteen years since they smelled a woman outside of Bri Ogden La, and she didn't have any interest in any of the men.

Quickly, the other Trilobite males descended on the young women, and they were forceful in their approach. Tugging and pulling on the ladies, Ku immediately stepped in, and said, "Don't manhandled the women!" Most of the ladies stood less than five feet, but under the three moons of Ozarrio, they were beautiful-all of them. Everything about the women was as beautiful as anything, to the homosexuals and the heterosexuals alike. And since ten Trilobites had passed from the time they landed on the planet fifteen years earlier, each male could easily have the comfort of five females. Unfortunately, it was obvious that several of the homosexuals didn't want anything to do with the women, and that angered Po. It made him make an edict in front of the community that homosexual relationships had to cease.

"All male on male relationships must end," Po said as he stood in front of the community. With his hands on his hip, he then said, "We must breed or die."

Ku didn't know how to take the new edict on banning homosexual relationships in the community. J'Piana walked up to him after Po left the area, and he looked somewhat distraught. Ku knew that the young Trilobite had never known the touch of a woman, and from what he could tell, didn't desire to be with one.

"May we talk?" Said J'Piana.

"No," Ku said, "The law has been set. We may not like it, but we must obey it. This includes you." He felt the young man's breath against his right ear. The scent of the sweet, Booshi fruit was coming off his breath.

"Just like that, we're defeated?" He said, "The god has spoken, and the love we had is gone." Quickly, he walked away, and when Ku reached for him, he pulled his left arm away with all his strength. He was going back to his hovel alone and didn't take his five women with him. And then as Ku stood in front of his five women, he took them back to his hovel where he fed them. They were famished, to say the least.

In all, approximately six men-including Ku-didn't want anything to do with the women chosen to be with them because they had proclivities for other men. But when it came to Ku, he took the women back to his hovel because he felt it was the right thing to do. Vo-Ptah's last child with Ro'Dan-invented the lottery system with the help of Orion's hologram, and when he gave the printout to Ku, the old Trilobite called off the assignments. This matching took place within hours of the spacecraft landing on Ozarrio, and it was late into the evening once Ku received the matches. Five ladies went with Ku, with Po, …, and with J'Piana. But when J'Piana saw his five women, he kindly rejected them in front of the community and then went to his hovel without his ladies. Needless to say, his actions upset Po, and his outrage was palpable. Despite his work with Ku on the cornfield and building the entranceway to the She Ah Vog, J'Piana was only known for one other thing: comforting the men of Ozarrio. He massaged their shoulders, backs, and intimate parts, and he didn't only do this job for Ku, but for all the upperclassmen who asked him, including Po.

The next day Ku's flock of women took to the field unmolested during the night, and watered the corn, attended to the things around the farm, and drank a sweet, Booshi drink made from the Booshi trees that grew alongside the tarn. He drank only briefly. His eyes watched J'Piana walking along the side of the field with his hands in his pockets, and then he had an epiphany: he could continue his relationship with him in private. Nobody needed to know his business, and as long as he impregnated his flock of women, then he filled his obligation to the community. The whole night the ladies offered themselves to Ku, but he resisted the temptation. The idea of J'Piana sleeping alone bothered him because he loved him deeply.

"J'Piana, can we talk?" Ku asked as he chased him down the narrow road. It was nothing more than a solid path that the feet of the Trilobites made through the years. And as he approached his old love, the young man sped up as if he didn't want to hear Ku's voice. "J,Piana, why must you act this way?"

Suddenly, the young man came to a stop in the middle of the path, and then looked back at Ku over his left shoulder. "Did not Po forbade our relationship, Ku? Did he not say we either breed or die?"

The old Trilobite who had the face of a young man reached out his right hand and held on to J'Piana's right shoulder. Without thinking, he turned around, kissed him on the mouth, and then they embraced for a long time. It was a relief to Ku in so many ways. "I will build a building, a kind of green room where we can show our love out of the view of the rest of the community." It seemed like a fantastic idea, but it was at least a wise move in his mind.

"You do just that," J'Piana said, "But if Po finds out we're not obeying the rules, he'll kick us out of the community."

Ku looked down at the ground for a moment and thought about J'Piana's flock of women. The last time he saw them they were near the temple camping out the previous night. "You must give your women a place to rest their heads. You must show some interest in them if we are to pull this off."

"But to have them in my hovel and touching my things. It's something I cannot fathom," he said, "The idea of bedding one of them sickens me. I've only known the grunts of other men, and it's what I enjoy."

Ku listened to his lover's entreaties about not sleeping with his five women for over an hour and then retreated back to his house for his ax, the one made from temporal metal from the She Ah Vog. He received help from nearly thirty women holding hatchets, the ones assigned to gay men, and they descended down into the deep, sapphire forest for some of the strongest trees. Due to the fact that J'Piana and a few of the other men didn't want any women in their hovels, Ku decided to build housing for the ladies. And in all, it was about thirty women living in iffy situations because the men they were matched to were gay, and if they were to stay safe, Ku took it upon himself to build them a safe place.

When Ku stood in front of a large, pine tree with his ax by his side, he watched some of the women on the other end of the field. Raising the ax into the night air, he took one huge swing at the pine tree directly in front of him and sliced through it like it was made of butter. The temporal steel blade had the perfect edge, and when it hit the tree, it sliced through it effortlessly. The tree fell to the right of him and made a large thumping sound. The women jumped up and down for joy and then raised their hatchets in the air. Immediately, they began cutting the tree into logs, and the men of the village gathered them in the wheel barrels and took them back to the village. All throughout the forest, Ku cut down the healthiest of trees, and the women followed behind him chopping them up into logs.

After two years, Ku and his team built an apartment complex to hold the women who didn't have men. And in that two year period, the women gave birth to nearly two hundred and fifteen babies. But when Po noticed approximately thirty women never gave birth in that two year period, he began to question the reason why.

"Ku, in the last two years, J'Piana and you haven't fathered any children," he said, "Why is this?"

Ku stood in front of Po for a moment, and then said, "We wanted an opportunity to learn all about the women."

Po laughed for a moment, and then said, "To know them? You can learn all about them in time, but now we have to produce babies, and have a strong and healthy population of children."

Later in the evening after he spoke to Po, he opened the door of the Green Room, and when he did, Bri Ogden La stood in the middle of the hovel completely nude. Several of the other ladies were kissing all over her bare body. She was the reason the women didn't complain about not having a male in their group of five because Bri Ogden La kept the women satisfied. Immediately, he exited the room and let the ladies be, but now he knew one of the elite class engaged in homosexual activity after Po banned it.

When the first batch of children turned eight-years-old, Po had grown increasingly agitated with J'Piana and some of the other men who hadn't impregnated their five women. The men and women gathered around a large table and began to feast on their nightly dinner when Po warned J'Piana and Ku that they must impregnate their five women or else.

"Did I not put out a warning about homosexuality in the community?" Po asked with a grimace on his face. He chewed on a piece of bread, and then said, "I'm giving you two one more chance to correct this."

J'Piana-in his anger-leaped to his feet, and then said, "Once upon a time you loved me like you love those women. You're such a hypocrite."

Suddenly, Po's eyes turned red, and a stream of light came out of his eyes, tearing J'Piana in half. It happened so fast that it took a second for Ku to realize what took place. But when he watched his lover fall down into two pieces, he screamed as loud as he could, and when he attempted to attack Po, his five women held him in place.

"You killed my lover!" Ku screamed. "Why would you do that?"

"Leave," Po ordered, and then immediately everybody left the area except for Po and Ku. The elder Trilobite pulled the cloth from the table and gently wrapped up his lover. His ax hung off his right hip.

"Why would you do this, son?" Ku asked. "Did he not please you all those years ago?"

"Father, he challenged me," he said calmly. "How can I not answer it? Either breed or die."

"Is that a warning?" Ku asked.

"Yes," he said, "I will kill you…"

Suddenly, Ku's ax left his side and hit Po center mass, killing him on the spot. He let out a loud scream, and then Bri Ogden La came running to her brother's side. By the time she got to him, he was already dead.

She looked back at Ku with anger in her eyes. "What now, father?" She asked with a grimace. "Am I next? Or Vo?"

Ku pulled the ax out of his son's chest, and then said, "Maybe one day one of his twenty children will come for me," he said to Bri Ogden La, "But to let J'Piana's death go unanswered is something I wasn't willing to do."

Suddenly, a bright, painful light encompassed Ku, a vengeful white light that took him up, high into the sky, and flipped him around and around, and then slammed him to the ground. In the distance, he heard Bri Ogden La screaming, but couldn't see her because the brightness was all consuming and blinded him. And then out of the blue, he saw a stream of fire shoot across his face, and he didn't know what to make of it. In the distance, he heard a voice; it was Orion, the real Orion, and she was angry at him for what he had done.

"What have you done?" She screamed. "You've killed my boy!" He could feel her rage as she unleashed an overabundance of heat on his face. It felt like thousands of needles stabbing him all at once.

"Orion, please spare my wretched life?" He begged, "I didn't mean to kill, Po. But he killed J'Piana, the one whom I loved."

"Through the crackling in the wind, I see all that you do," she said, "And I sent the vessel of women so you may replenish your population. But now that you've killed my boy, I place the curse of life upon you. You will not see death, but you will know it. No longer will you be known as Ku Dan, but you shall be Ku Klip."

"Please, Orion. I beg you to not give me that name," he said, "I will be known throughout Ozarrio as the traitor to the gods."

"Yes. You are," she said.

He knelt before her, right hand raised in the air and begged her for forgiveness, and then a large bang took him out of his dream state, and when he landed to the ground, he did so at the feet of a resurrected Po.

"By the gods," Bri Ogden said in a brittle voice. Her black hair turned silver, and her eyes gray in color. "You've angered Orion, Ku. She has given you the name of the curse one. I fear her powers."

"Yes," Po said, "The anger of Orion falls square on your chest. You will leave our community, and forge your own way away from us because you dared to defy the orders of The Great One. You are the Klip."

"Why the Klip?" He asked calmly. "That's the worst name in the ancient language of the gods. I beg Orion not to give me that one." He paused for a moment as tears raced down his cheeks. "How long have you been in contact with Orion?" He asked calmly.

"Since the women came nearly ten years ago," he said, "For one more year, the gateway that allows her powers to enter this world will be open. Father, you must leave this community for your crimes. You are the Klip. You will never grow old and you will never die. You will wish for death, but it will never come. This is your curse for the crimes against the gods. Goodbye, Ku Klip."

Current time:

James slept on the couch in Tre'Yan Pitnick's small cottage; it was an uncomfortable sleep because he thought about Lena the entire night and her safety. But at the same time, his host had similar features to his girlfriend, and even though she had a fair visage, he thought it would be wrong to enter into her bedroom. But for the whole night, he was tormented by strange hallucinations of the woman straddling him. It was odd because for a second he couldn't move at all. It was like he was having night terrors, a problem that he had after his father was murdered.

He lay on the couch when Tre'Yan awoke early and prepared a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and goat's milk. It had been a long time since James had a big breakfast and he enjoyed every bite of it. Before Rachel injected him with the Superman formula, he used to go to the gym every morning then have a gigantic breakfast. But since he had super strength, his gym workouts were pretty much pointless. He barely broke a sweat when lifting weights and running on the treadmill.

When he stood up off the couch, he felt a little dizzy for some reason, as if he were recovering from being drugged. It took a moment for him to work off the grogginess, but he finally did. A part of him wondered if it was the effects of the Superman formula that caused vertigo or something else. He walked over to her bathroom in the back of the cottage and noticed familiar wetness between his legs. At first, he thought he imagined he had sex in the middle of the night, but now he had some evidence of it. In any case, he was completely confused.

After he finished up in the bathroom: washing his hands, throwing water on his face, and rinsing out his mouth, he walked into her kitchen area. "The three-headed monster never came last night," Tre'Yan said calmly as she set the table. James immediately noticed the similarities between her and Lena and the way she set the table. Her calm disposition made her desirable. "It must've found some unicorn flesh or eaten from Tavi's corn," she said with a grimace. "I just hope it wasn't a Munchkin." She motioned for James to come over to the table and he did, but he also noticed the frown on her visage.

James looked at her for a moment, and then said, "The three-headed monster tried to eat me last night." He paused for a moment, and then said, "I should've told you about this last night. It made every attempt to swallow me, but couldn't." He sat back in his chair, and then said calmly, "I killed it by tearing off its middle head."

She dropped her fork on her plate and it made a racket. He noticed her right hand shook like she had a problem with her nervous system, and then he noticed her hand vibrating faster than possible. She then placed her hands on her lap, calmed down for a second, and said, "The Tin Man will attack the Munchkins over the death of his three-headed monster!" She exclaimed. Setting her forehead on the table, she began to breathe loudly. "He blames them for everything and this will be an excuse for him to kill them. You've put them in danger. In the name of Ptah, you must help them."

James quickly stood to his feet, and said, "I will go to the village to make sure they're okay." He walked over to the front door, and then said, "Thanks for the meal." Looking back at her for a moment, he smiled. She didn't smile back but he thought it might have to do with her culture. He left out the front door and ran through the forest at the speed of sound until he was about a block away from the Tin Man's convoy. They stood in front of the Munchkins with their weapons trained on the entire village, and he feared they'd fire on the people before he had a chance to intervene. When he ran through the forest to Munchkin Country, he didn't expect to see the Tin Man and his people on their sophisticated hoverboards. Immediately, he noticed the silver monstrosity was nearly seven feet tall and had large, muscular arms and legs made out of tin-plated iron.

Suddenly, he saw the crowd of Munchkin's throw their hands in the air, and then he took off at the speed of sound again, but this time to stop the would-be carnage. As soon as he stepped in front of the woman with the soft, sapphire countenance, he felt a series of laser blasts bounce off his shield. With the press of the button on his watch, he was decked out in his Guardian suit and it sparkled under Oz's two suns. When the laser fire bounced off his shield, it killed two iron guards in the Tin Man's entourage. The laser cut their iron bodies into several pieces as the Tin Man looked on with a scowl on his face.

The silver monstrosity hopped off his hoverboard and stood directly in front of the Guardian. His face held a certain kind of anger that James noticed immediately: thin lips, protruding forehead, and fiery red eyes-all formed into a nasty scowl that caused the Guardian some dismay. "What are you?" The Tin Man asked with a grimace on his visage. "You move like the Messenger God of old. Like Hermes. He's the reason this world and the Speed Force exist. Are you from the realm of the gods?"

"No," James said, "I'm James Olsen of Earth." He paused for a moment. "Don't hurt these people," The Guardian said, "I killed your three-headed dragon because it attacked me." He had his right hand extended, and on the face of his palm was a metal attachment. It fit right in the center of his palm on his right hand. It was a positronic laser that Winn installed on the suit.

"You killed Randolph?" He asked as he chewed on his tobacco. For a moment, he noticed the silver monstrosity looked at him with a stern countenance as he spat on the ground in front of him. The other men of iron and flesh remained guarded, but he didn't worry about them. For now, the silver, behemoth of metal was his main concern.

"The dragon tried to devour me," he said in a strong, low-pitched voice. "I did what I had to do."

"Olsen is your family name? The Olsen family out of Liberal, Kansas?" Asked the Tin Man as he continued to stare straight at James without flinching. Most of the people looked frightened, but James tried his best to remain calm.

"It is," he replied. "My Great Great Grandfather was born in Liberal Kansas, but the rest of my family lived in Seward."

"So, Julian Olsen is to you…?" He asked.

"My Great Great Uncle, but he went missing at seventeen," he said with a gasping sound in his voice. "Did he come here?"

"No," he said, "He's dead." He looked at the villagers for a moment, and then asked, "Why are you taking up for these creatures, earthling?" Asked the Tin Man as he raised his right fist to him. "They'd never do the same for you."

"It's the right thing to do," he snapped.

"You should just walk away, earthling," The Tin Man said.

"Can't do it," James replied.

The silver behemoth smiled for a moment, and for some reason, James relaxed his guard. "I guess being the guy on the losing end of the battle is genetic," he said with a nasty look in his eyes. Suddenly, the Tin Man swung around with a right foot and connected with the Guardian's head and it resulted in him flying into one of the cottages, causing it to fall down around him. It happened so fast that he didn't see it coming. He ran over to James, picked him up in the air, and cracked his back over his steel knee and it sounded like a tree trunk breaking in half. "You're in my world now, James Olsen who runs like a god," the Tin Man said as he charged toward a wobbling James, and elbowed him in the forehead. The earthling fell backward onto the ground and moaned. He didn't expect the Tin Man to run so fast, but he did. When he hopped to his feet, the Tin Man punched him through his shield and that caused him to fly back one more time. It was as if he had just as much strength as Supergirl in his punch. James then flew into the Tin Man and knocked him to the ground, but several of the Tin Man's guards fired on him. They hit him with red lasers that caused him to fly into another cottage. That was when the Tin Man grabbed James and began beating him into the ground. It was obvious the old man of steel had more combative training than James. "You should've minded your own business," he screamed, "This wasn't your war." When the Tin Man finished with smashing James into the soil, he walked over to the other villagers, and said, "Your hero is dead! You'll pay for this Olsen's interference," he said with a grimace. "I want forty more percent of your harvest every year from this day forward."

"We can't give you that," Mary said, "We're barely getting by with the current arrangements. It would destroy us."

"Then I will return in three days with my army and show you true destruction," he said with a grimace, "Your hero that runs like a god is dead, and nothing will protect you from my vengeance. May Ptah have mercy on your souls."

Later in the day…

When the Tin Man left the area, James hopped to his feet, wiped off the dirt from his suit, and then pushed the button on his watch and his uniform disappeared. He realized he'd have to fight the Tin Man in an unincorporated area so no innocent people got hurt because he was just as strong as any foe he ever encountered. But at the same time, he couldn't fathom how the man of tin knew about his Great Great Uncle, Julian Olsen, and that disturbed him. He had heard from his father that his Great Great Uncle had possibly caught a ship to West African in eighteen ninety-eight, but he wasn't sure.

Before he had an opportunity to catch his breath, he saw the older lady that the Tin Man almost shot pacing. She had long, black hair with sapphire skin and green eyes, and from what he could tell, her visage resembled Kara's face. The similarities between her and Kara were acute and precise. They had the same body language and disposition. She didn't look that old, but according to Tre'Yan Pitnick, everybody on Oz aged slowly.

Mary looked at him for a moment, and then asked, "Why aren't you dead, James Olsen? The Tin Man is like a god on Oz. Since he seized power, nobody has matched him in battle. He dispatched all his enemies and wears the Tins as rust-resistant metal."

James smiled, and said, "I'm not easily defeated. I just wanted him to think he beat me so he'd leave. This area is too populated and I worried about hurting innocent people in the battle. With just that little tussle, we destroyed two houses."

She looked up at him for a moment as the morning suns were now high in the sky. "You don't have a blemish on you," she said as she wiped the sapphire grass off his clothes. "Are you some kind of god?"

"No," he said with a smile. The way she looked up at him brought joy to his face. For a moment, he thought he was talking to Kara. "I'm just hard to break."

"When he finds out you're alive, he'll kill everybody just to get to you," she said with a grimace. "He's an evil Munchkin who never just gives up." She looked at his missing pants leg and then said, "I have some clothes that'll fit you. They were my husband's clothes, but he died years ago."

"That'll be great," He said with a smile. "I've beaten, nearly eaten and splashed with acid in these clothes. It'll be nice to get into some fresh duds." They walked toward her small cottage when he looked over his right shoulder and saw a puff of smoke emanating from a small vase on the ground where the Tin Man's soldiers stood. The smoke crossed the path of a large, unkempt Munchkin, and caused him to pass out in the sapphire grass. "What's that?" He asked.

"Oh dear," Mary said with a surprised look on her face. "It's poison from the poppy field! It's enough to kill every Munchkin in the village."

James watched the gas move toward the cottages slowly, but he realized quickly he had the power to do something. He remembered Superman creating a funnel using his superspeed and decided to do the same thing. He pointed his right hand at the billowing smoke and then made a circular motion with it. When the stream of dangerous vapor went up into the air, the locust attacked it, not knowing what it would do to them. At first, James took pride in saving the village as a team of Munchkins placed the injured Munchkin on a gurney. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw a locust nose dive into the center of the community and its guts splattered all over the front of several cottages. They burned. He found himself tossing dirt on the front of small houses at an incredibly rapid speed. Once he put out the fires, two locusts fell to the ground and splattered into the cornfield, ruining a quarter of the food. Quickly, he realized the deadly fumes were pernicious. At first, one locust failed. Next, two locusts failed. Now, five locusts twirled to the ground and landed near the tarn, burning the sapphire vegetation around it.

Traversing the land at a rapid speed, he put out fires all over Munchkin Country because of the falling locusts. It was more work than he thought as nearly forty-five locusts burned Munchkin Country. The bucolic, sapphire vegetation burned in front of his face as he tried to extinguish it with mounds of dirt. He tossed up approximately two hundred tons of crud, causing craters all over the immediate area. It took him nearly two hours to put out all the fires, and when he finished saving Munchkin Country, the three moons were high in the sky.

Mary stood approximately five-foot-five-inches, sapphire skin, green eyes, and slender. Her black her grew past her shoulders and she had a quiet disposition overall. She gave James some of her deceased husband's clothing and he believed they would fit him perfectly. The men of means in the community had already fixed the damaged cottages and the women prepared the community meal of unicorn steaks, fried sapphire tomatoes, and potatoes. Mary showed him the community showers on the edge of the village and he took a long, hot shower and tried to focus on Lena. A full day passed since he saw her last and he didn't know if she survived or not. But at the same time, he knew JJ wouldn't just let her die, at least he didn't think he would just let her die.

Quickly, he got dressed because the Munchkins treated the evening meal as an obligatory event, and he didn't want to offend his host. As soon as he walked out of the community shower, Tre'Yan Pitnick stood in front of the entrance way wearing a silver, military-style dress that went past her knees. Her presence caught him off guard because when he left her cottage that morning he felt she was displeased with him over killing the three-headed monster. They walked down a brick trail with light posts that stood about twenty feet apart; it gave them enough light to see each other in the darkness of the night. In addition, he wondered if they engaged in coitus on the previous night. It was something that weighed heavy on his soul.

"I've been eager to ask you something," he said calmly.

"Go ahead," she said with a smile.

"Did we do anything last night?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" She asked. "We had sex. Don't you remember?"

He paused for a moment on the trail, and then replied, "But I wouldn't just have sex with a stranger like that."

"You said, 'Come here and make love to me.'," she said, "It sounded more like a command. And you also reminded me of Prince NeFare of Moxia. He was my old boyfriend. He came to Vega Star as a part of the student exchange program."

"Do you miss him?" James asked out of curiosity.

"Every day," she said with a grimace. "He died in the Moxian war three years prior to me getting stuck here." She paused for a moment. "I saw what you did with the fires," Tre'Yan said with a smile. She held him by his right hand as they walked down the trail to the community dinner. "You're obviously of the god ranks and trapped in the Speed Force like the rest of us. If you happen to be stuck here forever, I'm not opposed to beginning a relationship with you."

"I'm here by accident," he said with a grimace, "I'm sure my cohorts will find a way to save me."

"I don't think you're here by accident," she said, "You have the strength of a god and the speed of a Speedster, but the Speed Force didn't recognize your signature and imprisoned you for illegal use of speed. In time, this prison will release you once it has mapped your speed signature. It may take a week, two weeks, a month or whatever. Or it may be never."

"Is that true?" He said calmly, "I fear the rage inside of me makes me unstable and I have no way of controlling it when I have an episode."

"There are wonderful apothecaries on Oz. They'll have something to calm your mood," she said, "Unlike me, I slipped into this verse by a mishap with my warp core," she said, "I will never get home. But at the same time, I will never know freedom as long as the Tin Man lives. He forces me to supply the kingdom with most of my corn and he pays very little for it."

"We did battle, but he's far too strong and nimble," he said calmly, "He's definitely an old warrior that I will have to study." James pulled out a chair for Tre'Yan, and she took a seat. Mary sat on the other side of him. Several tables stood throughout the community with over three hundred people eating at the same time.

To James, the aroma from the meat was unlike anything he had ever smelled in his life. Quickly, Tre'Yan fixed him a plate and then fixed her plate, and before she ate, she said a quick prayer to Ptah. Mary looked over at James for a moment, and then said, "There's only one way to defeat Nick."

"How?" Tre'Yan asked as she looked over at her.

"By removing his heart with the Enchanted Ax that took his limbs," she said.

"That's crazy," Tre'Yan said, "The Gnostics Witches have the ax and it'll take an army to get past the Tin Man's guards. There has to be another way."

"I might be able to get the ax," James said, "We have to do something if we're going to stop him from decimating the village."

"Well, all I know is the ax that took his limbs is the weapon needed," Mary said, "It's imbued with temporal metal and magic. No other Enchanted Ax will do."


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

In the days of old, approximately one thousand years after Ro'Dan entered into the Speed Force and nine hundred years after the Neonodes kicked the two, Kryptonian men off their world, Ptah and Oriona-the Siren who Ptah married on Thanagar-met with the gods of Oa on Maltus in the Tower of the Guardians. Now, after nearly a thousand years, over thirty thousand descendants of the Great Ptah and Oriona lived on the world, but he had one thousand kids with her who ran the government. Each one of his male children mated with a Gidison who produced a pure Thanagarian child. In those days, the first law of Thanagar was produce and be plenty.

Thousands of years passed since the last time he came to his children's home, the children of Oa, the ones he had with the Great Mother. His first son, Hermes, hated him but didn't express that hate verbally, but when Ptah met with his first son, he detected the animus that lived within him.

The TOG stood approximately thirty-two hundred feet tall, and it was so tall that Ptah saw it from space. It was an ominous looking building that touched the skyline, and legions of Manbots hovered around the skyscraper protecting it from the enemy, alien races. Upon entry to Oa, several Oan, First Class Battlecruisers orbited the planet, and now, from what he observed, he knew his children had a full army in place to protect their interest.

Oriona stood next to Ptah as they brought the Phantom into Oa's orbit, and she said, "Be careful of these Oans. This is nothing more than a show of force."

"I agree," Orion said as she hovered next to Ptah's head. "We should've come with our own fleet with the Infinity in the lead."

Ptah scoffed and showed a visible disdain for their suggestions because he didn't want a war with his children. "This is nothing more than a peaceful meeting about the future of the Kryptonians. These ships aren't meant to deter me," he said calmly, "It's for the other aliens who might attack this world. Besides, the Phantom is the strongest and fastest ship in the galaxy. It will always be the lead ship."

Ptah wore his snake-like hair long and down the center of his back, and on his right hip, he carried the Hammer of Knowledge while his wife carried the Axe of War on her hip. He metamorphosed himself into a male Siren, and black wings protruded from his back. His children called him the Vulcan in those days. Orion-his robotic wife-set on his right shoulder when they entered the TOG. The main room where they held the meeting was called the Hall of Knowledge, and when he entered the room, all the gods stood to greet him.

Ganthet-a small blue man walked over to his father, and said, "Welcome."

"We come in peace, son," he said with a grimace, "With the Kryptonians now living under a red sun, they are no longer a threat to you."

He laughed for a moment, and then said, "Sit, father? Sit?"

Quickly, Hermes pulled the chair out for Ptah and another one out for Oriona, and they sat at the end of the table. Ganthet sat on the other end of the table with the other Oans sitting on either side. The green rings were prominent fixtures on their hands. Ptah wore a black ring on his right hand, a ring that sucked the energy out of all other rings, and the reason he put on his black ring was that he didn't trust the Oans. In their last war, the Ring of Darkness ended the battle between Luciferous and the Oans, a war between the Yellow Lantern and the Green Lanterns.

"What happens when the Kryptonians escape the confines of their galaxy?" Ganthet asked. "Do we allow another world under yellow suns to suffer the fate of Neo Star?"

One of the Guardians named Scar had a scrunched face, large eyebrows, and a receding hairline said, "These Kryptonians are dangerous to all the other worlds under a yellow sun. We'd be remiss if we don't put an end to them."

Ptah sat back in his chair for a moment, and then Hermes passed him a Booshi drink. He took a sip of the toxin, and then set the golden chalice on the table. Ordinary alcoholic beverages didn't have an effect on him, so he took a few more sips because he enjoyed the sweet taste.

"I see you're enjoying your drink father, but are you going to answer our questions?" Ganthet asked.

"Mind your tone!" Orion exclaimed. "Don't forget you're sitting in the presence of the Great Ptah."

Hermes smirked and then placed his elbows on the table as a form of disrespect. He giggled like a small child and acted like one too. Phat looked over at his first son, Hermes, and then said, "Do we have a problem?" He looked directly at Ganthet's power ring as he twirled it around his right index finger. "Leave the Kryptonians alone or incur the wrath of the Celestial Kingdom."

"Don't come to my world and threaten me!" He exclaimed, "We followed your rules in the old verse, but now we're the deciders. The Kryptonians must die out, father."

Ptah looked directly at Ganthet and then said, "The Kryptonians must be allowed to grow as a people," he said calmly, "Besides, the Great Mother protects them. If you touch them, it will mean war and your toy rings won't be able to save you this time."

Immediately, Ganthet stood to his feet and walked to the far side of the room. He began to laugh softly, and then out of nowhere, he screamed, and said, "Do you think we need your permission? I hope you know Hermes laced your drink with ambrosia."

Oriona hopped to her feet, and said to Hermes, "You snake!"

"Sit down, you winged betty!" Hermes exclaimed.

"How dare you talk to the Queen of Thanagar that way?" Ptah asked.

Hermes slid back in his chair and showed Ptah his power ring. His fingers were spread apart when he laughed ominously. "We can hurt you now, father. It takes over a month for that poison to work out of your system. No healing and you can bleed."

"It's funny you think we asked you here to discuss Krypton," Appa Ali Apsa said as he walked to the front of the room. "We've passed talking twenty-eight thousand years ago when you started working to undo what we did to them."

"Even with the ambrosia in my system, it would take all your powers to defeat me," Ptah said, "You either retreat or I'll wipe you off this rock."

Suddenly, a green laser flew across the room and hit Ptah in the side causing a deep wound. He flew back into the far wall, and then Orion flew off his shoulder and a laser hit Hermes in the left leg, automatically crippling him. He fell to the ground.

Ganthet launched a series of rays that hit Oriona in the chest, and when she flew backward, Ptah caught her with his telekinesis and sat her on the ground. When he ran over to his wife, she had a hole in her chest and didn't appear to be breathing.

"You can just make another one," Ganthet said laughingly. He then shrugged his shoulders, and then Orion flew through the air and hit him with a laser that cut his forehead. He flew backward into the wall and blood dripped down his face. "You, bitch!"

Quickly, Ptah leaped to his feet, threw the table with his mind toward Ganthet as he lay up against the wall, and then he used the energy from his power ring to split the table into two pieces. Holding his side, he waved his hand and a portal opened in the middle of the room. Grabbing his wife, he raced for the portal entryway, but as soon as he went to enter, Ganthet shot Orion and split her case into two pieces.

"Noooooooooo!" Ptah screamed. Waving his hand again, all the pieces of Orion went into the portal, and then it closed.

Dora

Dora's beauty was beyond anything the mind could imagine with seventeen beautiful oceans, and since she regained her conscience, six different species of Sirens lived on the southern continent. When Ptah crashed to the planet with his wives, a plume of dust flew into the air. With all his strength, he tried to heal Oriona's chest wound, but it didn't work because of the ambrosia in his system. He still had his unbelievable strength, speed, telekinesis, and telepathic powers, but his ability to heal was compromised. The effects of the ambrosia lasted for nearly a month, and if he didn't bring Oriona back within three days, then he couldn't bring her back according to the ancient laws of the gods. In addition to losing his ability to heal, he could be hurt by laser blasts and knives. His stomach wound bled liberally, and he felt like he would die too. When he looked over at Orion's casing, he realized immediately her brain wasn't located in the center of it. His heart filled with fear at the fact that he didn't have his first wife with him, and if he didn't get her brain back, Ganthet could use it against the Celestial Kingdom.

He concentrated for a moment on Veo, his oldest son who was on Krypton and tried to contact him telepathically. All he wanted to do was reach out to him to warn him of an attack on the Celestial Kingdom. But when he tried to leave the Dark Corridor for the Celestial Kingdom, the energy from the Great Barrier blocked him. He wept. "Dora, I'm weakened by the wound to my midsection. I'm filled with poison and can't heal myself."

Suddenly, the ground began to shake and a deep roar could be heard around the planet. She then sent him a telepathic message. "It has been a long time, Lord," she said telepathically, "We can become one as we did in the old days, and that will heal your body."

"But it'll still take four days to rid my veins of this poison," he lamented.

"Yes, Lord," she said, "But we all know you'll still bring your Oriona back to life with or without a soul." He slid his right hand over the dirt, and then touched his dead wife on her shoulder. For about three hours he stood perfectly still until he turned into pure electricity and disappeared inside of Dora. "I feel you inside me," she said.

"I've forgotten what it was like to become one with you," he said telepathically. "Once I regain my strength, I will bring the war to this verse just like I did in the last."

She gasped. "Will you destroy this verse too, Lord?" She asked.

"No," he said calmly. "But the Oans have to pay for what they've done."

Five Days Later

Planets-at least in the old days-talked to one another, and when Brion Noir (Dora) sent out a message that the Oans planned to attack the Celestial Kingdom, it spread to Moxia. Moxia took the communication and then gave it to Vega Star. From Vega Star, it went to Doraxia. After Doraxia, the communication came to Neo Star, a planet full of telepaths who received the communication. Due to Ptah giving the Neonodes warp three technology, they had some of the fastest Battlecruisers in the galaxy, and when they heard about the Oans' planned attack on Ptah's homeworld, ten Battlecruisers headed for the Celestial Kingdom, and they used wormhole technology to speed up the eight-year trip.

When Ptah reemerged from Dora's bosom, his snake-like hair was long and extended past his lower back. His dead wife laid at his feet, and he could smell her rotting flesh. The maggots and other insects filled her body, and he could hear them crawling around inside of her. Her black wings were hard and stiff, and as he gazed at her decaying body, he wept. But at the same time, he felt an overwhelming amount of grief for Orion as her metal casing laid at his feet. He picked up Orion's case and felt the coldness of it, and since the brain wasn't at its center, he knew his first wife was back on Oa.

"Word to protect the Celestial Kingdom has reverberated throughout the verse, my Lord," Dora whispered to him telepathically. "The war has begun."

For a short minute, everything became surreal as he looked upon his wife's corpse, and it pained him to no end. He didn't fathom the loss of his wife when he left the Celestial Kingdom for Oa, and now that she had passed, he was living his worst nightmare. But at the same time, he knew there was a strict standard when restoring life, but he didn't care about the rules. And even though the loss of Oriona cut him deeply, it didn't compare to the dismay he felt as Orion's casing set beneath his feet.

"I must restore her," he said to Dora telepathically.

"And break the law of the gods?" She asked. "What would Orion say?"

"It doesn't matter. All I have of her is this steel casing," he said. He bent down, picked it up, and then announced, " I will give Oriona a soul from Dragon Star. She will become Oa's nightmare."

"Once you do this, Ptah, you will bring darkness to this verse as you did the old verse," she said telepathically.

"So be it," he said angrily.

Oriona's wings-stiff and crusty-broke to his touch, and with rage in his heart, he ripped them from her back, tossed them to the side, and then straddled her with her eyes wide opened and facing him. The stench from her decaying body hit him in the face, and he could barely stand it. And as a golden glow encompassed the entire cave, it also swept over Oriona's body, and her bones began to pop, break, and morph into a new creature, a stronger creature, a creature designed to bring death to the verse. She let out several screams in a deep, chaotic voice, and then all of a sudden, fresh, black wings began to rapidly grow out of her back.

"I shall call you Death," he said as she opened her large eyes, and they appeared to be black crystal. "You'll bring destruction to my enemies. You'll contain a dragon's soul, and you shall not feel empathy for those you kill. Death will bring you joy."

Celestial Kingdom

The Great Mother-a Gorgon Goddess-walked through the Celestial Kingdom drinking some tea, but when she looked up, she saw her son, Ganthet standing directly in front of her. Setting her coffee on the table in front of her, she interlocked her fingers and rested her hands on her bosom. "What brings you to the Celestial Kingdom?" She asked.

"The Neuronet," he snapped. "I'll be taking it off your hands."

She gasped. "You can't have it," she said, "Are you mad?" Watching him closely, he began to play with his ring by twisting it back and forth on his right index finger. "Don't threaten me with your glowy toy," she said, "You'll only make a fool out of your self."

"Perhaps," he said, "But it put a hole in Ptah's gut."

She paused for a moment, and then said, "Ptah's dead?" Distraught, she placed her right hand on the counter to her front.

"Probably," he said as he showed her Orion's brain. It was a blue ball that he held in the palm of his left hand.

"Return Orion's brain immediately?" She asked. "By doing this Ptah will show you mercy, but..."

Ganthet laughed for a moment, and then tossed Orion's brain into the air. He grinned mischievously at his mother, but it didn't phase the Great Mother. "I'm your third son, but have you ever given me the love and the praise that you've given Ptah?"

"Is that your pain?" She asked calmly. "Your father is of the highest orders of gods. He inherited the greatest of me." She paused for a moment, and then said, "I will always put his needs above yours for you're of the lowest order."

He raised his ring hand to his Mother, and then said, "May my power ring tear you apart." A stream of green energy protruded from the ring, but the Great Mother flew out of the way of its power, and when she did, a burst of energy came out of her right fist. It hit Ganthet and knocked him into the far wall of the room. She moved like a speedster and put her third child in a chokehold, and as she wrapped her hands around his skinny throat, he let out a scream, and then let go of the blue orb; it rolled underneath the control panel.

Suddenly, a flicker of blue light and a surge of energy moved past her back, and when that happened, she unleashed several of the snakes from her head that immediately hunted for the third godlike creature. "I sense you, Hermes," she said in a harsh tone. "You've betrayed your father."

"In the way he betrayed me?" He said as he traveled faster than the speed of light around the room. When she turned her head toward his voice, he came up to her from the other side, and then she caught him by the throat. Her left foot was on Ganthet's throat and she held Hermes in her left hand by the throat.

"Your powers pale in the face of the true gods," she said, "Your uprising ends here." She listened to her children as they squirmed under the power of her unbreakable grip. But as soon as she went to crush Hermes' throat, she felt a laser strike from behind. It threw her against the wall. When she looked to see where the laser blast originated, a metal man, a man made of iron stood in front of her wearing a power ring. Broad shoulder, nearly eight feet tall, and with two rockets set atop his shoulders, she recognized them as the Iron-oids, a dangerous race of iron robots that supposedly died out in the old verse. "Iron-oids?"

"That's right, Queen Medusa," he said with a grimace, "I hoped for the day I'd have the opportunity to crush Ptah's empire."

Ganthet stood to his feet, wiped off his clothes, and as soon as he began to speak, one of the Great Mother's snakes bit him on the right side of his neck. He wrestled with the animal, but it took him down to the ground, and then he passed out.

The Iron-oid laughed for a moment in his deep, robotic voice, and then said, "The flesh is weak, but the metal is always strong." He quickly raised his ring hand to the Great Mother, and when he went to fire another laser blast, a sapphire shield erected in front of her body, and then deflected the deadly beam of light. As soon as that happened, Hermes began vibrating, and then mustered up enough speed to throw a devastating lightning bolt, and when he did, it knocked the Great Mother backward, and she lost consciousness.

The Celestial Kingdom

(The Return of Ptah)

Even though Ptah was of the upper echelon of gods, he was never angry or overbearing or evil until his children stole the Neuronet, a computer that contained all DNA of all known species throughout the old and the new verses. When he entered the Celestial Kingdom, the air reeked of Hermes' speed signature, a dead give-away that he was part of the thieves. It smelled like metallic and betrayal, and all he wanted to do was reinsert Orion's brain back in the flying disc, save the Great Mother, and return the Neuronet, a computer that had the backups of Orion's mind. If he didn't find her brain and his thieving sons destroyed the Neuronet, Orion would be wiped out of existence, a possibility he couldn't fathom.

Oriona stood by his side, dark and quiet and graceful with her wings expanded in an attack fashion as she touched the floor of the control room. She closed her eyes for a moment, and then said, "Will we destroy them this time, Lord?"

He looked over at her for a moment, and replied with an angry visage, "Indeed. To let Oa survive this betrayal would be a darkness on the House of La." Suddenly, the entire room filled with a blue light that touched everything, and he felt the knowledge of Orion emanating from that light. When he looked at where it originated, he saw the blue orb, secured it, and then placed it inside of an old, highly weaponized flying disc. It wasn't a new flying disc, but a weaponized machine from the old verse, a weapon of war.

"This is her old case," Ptah said as he fastened her brain into the middle of it, and connected her nervous system to all the neural pathways.

"I feel nothing but anger and rage, Ptah," Oriona said as she stood on the opposite side of him. "You should've let me stay dead. I'm an abomination to the verse, a being without a soul."

"But you're also my wife," he said as he looked up from his work. "If you must die, then die getting back the Neuronet. Without it, we will lose the knowledge we obtained from both verses."

"Yes. I'd rather die in battle, then to return to Thanagar without a soul," she said, "A Thanagarian soul."

He sighed for a moment, and then said, "Will the soul of a dragon not do?"

"It will do for the death and chaos in the verse, but not for the Queen of Thanagar," she said calmly, "My death will come with the securing of the Neuronet." She placed her hands on top of Ptah's as he completed his work on Orion. "Don't bring me back once I'm gone. Don't give another creature my mind."

Dragon Star

Dragons existed in every part of the verse, but in the days of old, the dragons on Dragon Star were some of the wisest and noblest creatures of all. They had a sophisticated society with their own industrial revolution, and in most cases, they kept themselves hidden from other beings throughout the galaxy. But when threatened, they could easily turn dangerous and had the technology to protect themselves against otherworldly threats who wanted parts of their bodies for intricate potions. But when it came to Ptah, he wanted one of the souls trapped in the barrier that circumvented the planet and always chose to respect Dragon Star's space. A dragon's soul-outside of its body-was full of rage and without remorse, and if he put that soul in Oriona, she would be an emotionless, unforgiving fighting machine. When he came to the barrier around Dragon Star, he came with anger, with revenge, and with every sin needed to do what had to be done to make Oriona a dangerous and ferocious fighting machine.

He brought his wife into the barrier in a ship he called Infinity, and when the dragon souls flew past the ship, he waited for the angriest soul to arrive. With his god-like abilities, the souls looked like a collage of photos that he viewed in search of the brightest one. It had to be a soul unlike any other soul, a soul without a soul rejected by all other souls to re-soul his wife. It took three days before he saw a dragon soul with the rage and anger he needed to make his wife whole, and it had the brightest effulgence, a brightness that dulled all the other souls. He placed her in a silver pod and took her into the middle of the barrier for she couldn't survive the open space like him. With a few magic words and the power of his mind, he put the soul into Oriona, and she screamed in pain while beating against the pod. Her strength put several dents into the vessel, and Ptah knew he needed to get her back into the ship.

"This is killing me, Lord," she said as soon as he took her out of the pod.

"You will be okay," Ptah said, "It will take a few days before your body gets used to it."

Orion flew into the room, and said, "The Neuronet is on Oa." She flew onto his left shoulder, and then said, "According to the banter on the radio, Ganthet plans on replicating it." Gently, he helped Oriona on her feet, and she had an angry visage. He then turned his head toward Orion as she set on his left shoulder.

"Replication?" He asked with a confused look on his face. "He knows any spawns of the Neuronet will create the brainiac germ just like it did in the old verse."

"It will catalog worlds indiscriminately," said Oriona, "It will wipe out all existence as we know it."

"But the only ones outside of us who know about the inner workings of the Neuronet are the Iron-oids, the ones who helped us build it nearly five million years ago. They died with the collapsing of the old verse."

"That's not completely true, my Lord," Orion said calmly. "Dorax and Doraxia had hundreds of the Iron-oids with them when they crossed over into this verse to escape your reach."

"And you knew about this?" He snapped.

"It didn't seem important at the time," she said, "It was nothing more than a family squabble with me caught in the middle. I discovered the planet Iron Ore nearly fifty thousand years ago, cataloged it, and didn't disturb their progression."

"Must we continue with this chit chat?" Oriona asked. "Give me my battle ax, and we can smash Iron Ore and the Iron-oids in one gigantic blow."

Iron Ore

Ptah flew the Infinity over the industrialized planet called Iron Ore and watched the Oan Battlecruisers closely as they orbited the large, metal planet with iron buildings that reached the skyline. He was cold. The animus he had against his own children was beyond the pale, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move past what they had done to the Great Mother, Celestial Kingdom, and the Neuronet. The Infinity had a powerful cloaking device that kept the ship invisible to all, including the radar on the Oan Battlecruisers. Orion hovered over the control panel to the front of the ship, and when she suddenly turned toward Ptah as he sat in the command chair, she said, "Oh, dear!"

"What?" Ptah asked with a grimace on his face.

"It appears the Iron-oids have broken the time barrier," she said, "They're planning a million-year jump according to the controls."

"I fathom they're trying to restore the old verse," he said with a grimace. "All time travel is outlawed because of the unpredictable consequences." He leaned back in his command chair, and then looked over at Oriona for a moment.

"Let me smash their ships, wreck their buildings, and eradicate their very existence?" Oriona asked.

"No," he said, "Alert the Speed Force of the transgression, and it will handle the Iron-oids accordingly."

Current time:

Peppermint started cooking the sausage spaghetti as soon as she got home from school. She soaked the spaghetti in some cool water and added a bit of salt to it. She cut up a bundle of sausages and began cooking the fancy meal. The aroma from the cooked sausage permeated throughout the house while JJ and Orion looked at the satellite footage of the tornado that struck Metropolis. One of the partygoers caught the tornado on his camera, and when he wasn't looking, Orion downloaded the footage into her memory banks. Often, she stole critical information from all sources, including secure government sites. She had the ability to crack any known encryption on the planet and she often used it without any warning or known reason. At the end of the day, she added all the information to the Neuronet.

Once she obtained the video footage from the boy's phone, she then downloaded the footage into JJ's laptop and they stood by the dining room table and displayed the video on the far wall. Peppermint worked in the kitchen and cut up the salad at the same time JJ and Orion watched the video footage. Next to his laptop was a puzzle that Peppermint and Vera had been working on for the last week and it set in the middle of the table.

"Don't touch my puzzle," Peppermint said, "I'll move it before the guests arrive."

"Alright," JJ said as he adjusted the screen. It took him almost ten minutes before he had a good picture on the wall. He knew Orion was getting frustrated with him.

"Hurry up?" She said, "This archaic tech takes forever to prepare."

JJ watched the video footage with Orion and it took up the entire far wall. The lights in the living room portion were off, but the lights in the kitchen were on, and it was still dark enough to see the video clearly.

The house had eight bedrooms in it and six full baths and Orion and Veo had their own rooms along with Vera. Every other day, a cleaning crew cleaned the entire house and left it shining from top to bottom. JJ and Peppermint slept in the giant master bedroom and it had another large screen television in it.

"What kind of Tornado is that?" Peppermint asked as she leaned on the banister.

JJ immediately noticed the upside down funnel too and realized it was not something that originated on Earth. "It appears to be something out of this world," he said calmly. He walked in front of the screen for a moment and tilted his head as he looked at the upside-down funnel. He looked over at Orion as she hovered near his right shoulder, and said, "Do you see this madness?"

"Yeah. I'm watching the same footage as you, JJ," she quipped.

"Quit playing," he said, "That funnel came out of the Speed Force, but it only does that when the Speed Force doesn't recognize a speedster's signature. James isn't a speedster, is he?"

"He's never moved like a Speedster," Peppermint said with a grimace, "But his powers could be increasing. Doctor Ballard tested all his powers during the training exercises, and speedster wasn't one of them."

"The Superman formula that Rachel used is based on your original formula that changed the Kryptonians nearly two million years ago," Orion said, "So, James could very well run at the speed of light and have all the attributes of a Kryptonian under a yellow sun."

JJ pulled out a piece of paper and wrote down a series of calculations, and then said, "It'll take two weeks before the Speed Force releases him if it needs to recognize his speed signature," he said with a grimace, "He'll be okay depending on where in the Speed Force he resides."

"I don't know about that," she said calmly. "There are billions of worlds inside the Speed Force where he can be and most of them are full of time criminals of all calibers. You don't know about Ozario, do you? If he's there, it's going to get really dangerous."

He looked at Orion for a second, and then said, "In the ancient language of the gods, Ozario means the forsaken children."

"Yeah," she said, "It's a horrific place where several hundred ancient Trilobites ended up when they tried to break into the Speed Force to save Ro'Dan. They flew a ship into the Speed Force a decade after Ro'Dan became trapped inside. You had taken a respite from the Celestial Kingdom and lived on Thanagar with your new wife. The Trilobites thought you had forgotten about their sister."

"I remember taking that respite, but I don't remember you ever telling me about Trilobites entering the Speed Force," he said calmly. "I'm sure I would've wanted to know that."

"It was two million years ago," she said, "It's of no significance now."

"I still think of Ro'Dan," he said as he sat back in his chair. "I still remember how the Speed Force took her from us. It happened nearly two million years ago when we first initiated the prison for the gods," he said, "The momentum of the Speed Force trapped her in its wake, swooping her up inside. She was my lover for nearly one hundred and twenty years and you tried to break us apart because you thought I was becoming attached to her."

"I see you do remember a lot," she said, "When the Trilobites tried to break into the Speed Force with their ship, it countered their attack, and sent them to Ozario. It took nearly one hundred years for the Speed Force to stabilize before I entered into it. I discovered the Trilobites and they were at peace with living on Ozario. Their numbers had grown from thirty to two thousand."

"The Speed Force is a dangerous entity," he said calmly, "I made it imprison my son, Hermes, for his betrayal, but it took Ro'Dan from me." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Do you remember what happened when I found her inside the Speed Force after all those years?" He asked calmly.

"Of course I remember, JJ," she said in a somber voice, "It was a dark time for the Celestial Kingdom because you became someone none of us recognized. None of us. The radioactive energy changed her into a Succubus, an ancient demon who hated and defied you, but you couldn't take no for an answer."

"I remember," he said in a brittle voice. "After her passing, I tried to bury that part of me."

"You used rape as a weapon of war, and created a race of beings who eventually led to your death," she said, "For every action, there's often a lethal reaction." She paused for a moment, and then said, "Some of those demonic monsters ended up on Ozario and tormented your precious Trilobites. Once an earthling traveled to Ozario and returned. Her name was Dorothy Gale."

"What?!" Peppermint screamed, "Isn't that the girl from the Wizard of Oz?" She laughed out loud. "So, Oz is in the Speed Force? I don't recall that," Peppermint said from the kitchen.

"Just because you and Peppermint chose to sit on the sidelines for nearly two hundred thousand years doesn't mean things didn't happen," she said, "Damn right! Oz is in the Speed Force and Ro'Dan is your ancestor."

"You don't have to get nasty, Orion," JJ said.  
We all know Sekhmet was from the Deceivers."

"I'm just keepin' it real," she said, "Just keepin' it real."

"Y'all quit arguing all the damn time," Peppermint said, "It's obvious you two are still married."

"It's a sexless marriage," JJ said laughingly, "She's not putting out at all."

"Here we go," Orion said, "Don't start, JJ!"

"What?" He asked.

"You know what," she said, "It's obviously a mistake was made restoring your memory so soon because a two hundred thousand year reprieve from your shenanigans was barely enough time. I'm not putting on my robotic suit so you can feel me up, you dirty dog."

"I didn't even suggest that," he said, "Did I, Peppermint?"

"Oh, you thought it," she said laughingly, "With your nasty ass."

"Stay out of my head," he said. He turned to Orion, and then said, "Can you build a transmitter that will allow us to send a message into the Speed Force to James?"

"It's possible, but we have to be careful," she said, "It's best to allow the Speed Force to do its job without any interference from us. First, we have to determine his location within the prison and then assess the dangers. We don't know he's in Oz, but it's possible."

Dinner time…

J'onn, Alex, Winn, Kara, Vera, Peppermint, and JJ sat around the table and ate their dinner of sausage spaghetti, and out of respect, they left a space for James. Kara ate a small portion of her food and then pushed it to the side. She looked frustrated. He looked over at her for a moment and new she was thinking about their missing friend, and it was evident by the attitudes in the room.

"Lena is paying thousands of dollars to search Metropolis badlands for James," Kara said with a grimace. "She's not giving up the search." Orion flew into the room because JJ sent her a telepathic message.

"Orion, come here?" He asked telepathically.

"For what?" She asked telepathically. "I'm watching television."

"I'm about to discuss the Speed Force," he said telepathically, "You need to get in here and help me."

"Be right there," she said.

JJ kept his head in his spaghetti while Kara spoke, and J'onn said, "She loves him." Orion flew into the room and hovered right next to JJ's head.

"Orion!?" Winn exclaimed.

"Hey, Winn," she said, "We need to discuss the whereabouts of James Olsen and our theories will sound outlandish at first."

"What's your theories?" J'onn asked.

Immediately, JJ put the video of the Tornado on his big screen television, and he pointed to the upside down funnel.

"What's that?" Winn asked.

"An upside-down funnel," JJ said calmly, "It's not actually of our world."

Orion flew over to the television set, and then said, "This is the funnel outside the nightclub where James and Lena partied on Friday night. This upside down twister is most likely from the Speed Force. It's defying all of nature's laws as you can see."

"The Speed Force?" Kara asked, "But this would mean James defied space and time."

"That's right," JJ said, "It's highly possible that not only does he have super speed, but he's able to manipulate time. The Speed Force is treating him as an undocumented speedster."

"So, if he's trapped in the Speed Force, how do we get him out?" J'onn asked.

"We're building a device right now that will allow us to communicate with him inside the entity, but we don't exactly know his location," JJ said, "We fear he might be in Ozario."

"Ozario?" Kara asked.

"Oz. It's Oz, Kara. Like Dorothy's Oz," Peppermint said, "It's a real place inside the Speed Force."

At first, Kara had a blank stare on her face, and then she burst into laughter, and said, "Get the eff out of here."

"It is Oz," Orion said, "It's a real place."

"I knew it," Winn said, "I knew Oz was real."

"Give us a day or so to get the device built?" JJ asked, "Then we'll know if he's located on Ozario."

"Oz, JJ," Peppermint said, "Just say it."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Ozario:

Ku Klip lived on the northern edge of the Trilobite village in Munchkin Land, and due to his transgressions against the demi-gods nearly twelve hundred years earlier, they forbade him from entering the main, Trilobite village. He called himself and his people, the ones from his seed Munchkins, and now for over a thousand years, it was known that the Munchkins lived to the north of the Trilobites.

Orion placed a curse on him that took away his ability to age, and even though he still had the features of a young Trilobite, it pained him to watch his wives and children grow old, disabled, and die. He watched all of his first five wives die and buried them on the hill about five hundred yards from his front door. When the last of his original brides died, he begged Ptah to take his life too, but he remained the same: young and vibrant as always.

When he made his humble home in the north with his five, beautiful wives, they each had seven kids, and due to his curse, each one of his children lived to be nearly five hundred years old. He continued to grow corn on his property but hadn't eaten the flesh of an animal in nearly twelve hundred years because Ozario didn't have any livestock, including unicorns. The only food on the She Ah Vog was some corn, grains, and the Booshi seeds.

When the first group of kids was born, Ku referred to them as his little Munchkins, and then by the time his first set of wives died, the name had been established throughout the land that the children of Ku Klip were Munchkins. Most of them, at least the ones in the main village, only lived to be eighty years of age on average, and from birth, they usually stayed clear of the Munchkins.

After the passing of Pro'Naga, Ku's two hundredth wife on Ozario, it was time for him to find a new woman from the main Trilobite village. Usually, he found a young woman wandering through the thick forest without an escort, and in the ancient ways of Ptah, he chased her down and wrestled her into submission in the way of the gods. But on the last day of the Festival of Plenty, a young girl named Po'Aga, a descendant of Po'Darro wandered onto his property, and due to her height and grace, he knew she was part of the royal family. But Po, Ptah's first son with Ro'Dan, was an older man now, hardened by the insidious ways of the Trilobites who didn't have busy hands like the ones who served Ptah on the Celestial Kingdom. Often, they practiced witchcraft behind closed doors and had sex parties in forbidden places. The activity angered Po'Darro, but he was powerless to stop it because most of it was orchestrated by his sister.

When he walked out of his abode and saw the girl wandering onto his property, he said, "You know you're on the land of the Munchkins, right?"

She had a bright smile full of energy and zeal, and it immediately caused Ku to change his attitude about her. "Indeed," she said with a smile. "I'm just out here picking some Booshi fruit for pies and jellies for tonight's feast. I hope it's okay with you?"

"Pick all the Booshis that you need," he said. He noticed she had an innocent beauty about her, the kind of innocence that didn't know the taste of a man. She had the sparkle of hope in her eyes that all strong, independent Trilobite males look for in a mate. "The Festival of Plenty is a time when all the Trilobites come together and boast about all the wealth Ptah bestowed on their families." He paused for a moment, and then asked, "What's your name, Missy?"

"Po'Aga," she said with a smile and a bow, "I'm a direct descendant of Po'Darro, but without the powers."

She smelled of fresh peaches, a scent that connected her with the gods. It was a scent that often followed Ptah, and it was pleasing to his Trilobite senses. "Oh. I'm sure you have some magic flowing through your veins," he said with a smile. "Have you tried to use your powers?"

"All the time," she said, "But nothing comes of it. I'm a dud." She smiled. "I do know who you are."

"Yeah?" He said.

"You're the Klip, the curse one," she said, "The Outcast."

He grimaced because he wanted the curse part attached to his name to fade away because he loathed it. "I will live until the end of time," said Ku, "Long after Po'Darro dies I will still be alive."

She looked down at the ground for a moment with a grimace on her face. "This is a curse indeed," she said, "To see all those you love die is a pain nobody wants to endure."

Suddenly, a fireball of energy did a nose dive for the planet, and hit in Ku's cornfield causing a massive crater. When the ball of fire hit, Ku and Po'Aga dove to the ground, and then he embraced her, she screamed, "I'm afraid, Ku Klip." Hugging him tightly, he kissed her on the neck, and he felt her tense up in his arms.

"I got you, girlie," he said with a smile. "Everything will be okay." But when he looked up at the fire coming from his cornfield, he didn't think everything would be okay. The Speed Force had snagged another criminal, but he didn't know what it was. The smoke from the burning corn permeated throughout the entire area and made it extremely hard to see. He left Po'Aga behind when he entered into the field of corn, and as he drew closer to the burning ball, he heard the clink of armor and the sound of robotic-like voice.

"What is this world?" The metal monstrosity said as he brushed off the burning corn from his body. At first, Ku thought more than one creature fell out of the hazy sky, but upon investigation, he quickly realized it was just one, oversized metal monstrosity.

"You are on Ozario," Ku said as he approached the iron machine that toward above him. His skin looked like silver and gold, and the hair atop his head was black but crawled down his back like the snakes on Ptah's head.

"A Trilobite?" The metal man said, "Haven't seen one of you in years."

When Ku looked over the metal man for a moment, he noticed that he was missing his right hand. "My name is Ku Klip. Did you lose your hand in the crash?" He asked.

"No," he said, "My name is Cast Ferritic and I was a Lantern with Oa." He paused for a moment as he took a deep breath. "The Oans and I made an attempt to travel back through time to stop the collapse of the old verse, but..."

"I see," said Ku, "And the Speed Force nabbed you?"

"Not immediately," he said, "As I was putting in the exact year, Ptah and his wife Oriona entered into the room, and as I tried to fight them with my power ring, he used his Ring of Darkness to suppress its energy. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't form anything, and then out of nowhere that bitch chopped off my ring hand with her battle ax. She moved so fast that I barely had time to act."

"Is it only you?" He asked.

"No," he said, "There're billions of planets in the Speed Force. When Ptah banished me into this realm, I saw thousands of my people caught in the wake. Other Iron-oids may be on other worlds or even on the opposite side of this one."

Ku looked down at the ground and noticed the damage on the behemoth's right leg. Wires stuck out of his leg, and at times, they sparked. He sat down on the ground and appeared to be in pain. "You're hurt!"

"It was foolish to go against the Celestial Kingdom," he said as he lamented. "But I thought with the power of will, I could bring my people back from extinction. Over two million years ago, before the collapse of the old verse, a small group of Iron-oids came with Dorax and Doraxia to this verse. The inhabitants of Iron Ore descendent from them. Even though my people range in the millions now, we almost met complete annihilation at the hands of Ptah." Suddenly, the iron giant began to laugh. "Your name is one of dishonor in the ancient languages."

Ku looked down at the ground for a moment and then said, "I too have angered Orion, and she placed a curse on me. I shall not age. I shall not die."

Cast Ferritic sat on the ground for what seemed like a long time, but he was hungry for some nourishment. Ku knew he didn't have any crude for the iron man, but he did have an oil-based substance that he extracted from the Booshi Fruit. He used it to light his lanterns and keep his hovel warm in the winter. He poured Cast a jug of the oil, and then let him drink until he was full.

"And you extracted this from the Booshi?" He asked. "It tasted just as good as the crude on Iron Ore."

After a few weeks, Ku fixed the iron monstrosity's leg, and after working on an iron hand, he fastened it onto Cast Ferritic's right wrist. Po'Aga sat with him as he worked diligently on the iron man's injuries. The new, right hand was much smaller than his left hand, but he had full function out of it, at least for the first two weeks after Ku fastened it onto him. Po'Aga often visited Ku while he continued to polish and fix Cast's issues, and after a while, he had the alien metal-like creature shining like a brand new machine off the factory floor. Unfortunately, the homemade oil from the Booshi fruit began to rot the iron man's insides, and in the middle of the night, he screamed in agony. His face contorted like somebody drilled a hole into his midsection, and then he began to bleed from his nostrils. He let out a loud roar, and it brought Po'Aga running from down the way. Ku watched the metal beast roll around in his living room screaming and hollering, and it shamed him because he didn't have a method of drilling for the black crude Cast so badly needed. Po'Aga stood in the threshold of the door when Cast began to speak.

"If this is my death, then let it come at this very minute, Ku," he screamed as blood dribbled from his nose. He sat in the small, cursed man's house and with his back against the far wall. "I wish Ptah had crushed my head with his Hammer of Knowledge, but to suffer the affliction of starvation is worse than death."

"You take the Lord Ptah's name in vain?" Po'Aga asked. "If not for the Great Ptah, none of this would exist."

"It's okay, Po''Aga," Ku said with a serious look.

Cast scoffed for a moment until Ku gave him a serious look. "I'm sorry, Po'Aga," he said, "I didn't mean to disrespect your Lord, but the pain I'm experiencing is causing me to lose my faculties."

"You are forgiven," she said with a nod. "Ku, can you come with me?"

"What do you need?" He asked.

"Just walk with me?" She asked, "Down by the river?"

Ku and Po'Aga walked toward the old river, but at the same time, he felt some dismay leaving his metal friend in pain on the floor. "What are we doing here?" He asked calmly.

She looked at him with a serious visage, and then said, "I've been trying to give myself to you for weeks now, but your hands are always busy touching everything except me."

He paused for a moment, and then said, "Oh! So, you were never interested in my Booshi Fruit?" He asked.

"Of course I was," she said, "But there're Booshi Trees all over Ozarrio, but only the trees on your property guaranteed we'd meet up."

Grabbing her by the hair, he whispered in her right ear, and said, "I've had tons of women and they've all felt abandoned by the Trilobites once they took a room in my house. See, not only am I an outcast, but those who affiliate with me are too."

"So be it," she said as she struggled to maintain her balance. The way he pulled her hair caused her to lose balance several times, and then she suddenly broke free of his grip. "I'm an outcast in the House of Po'Darro because magic doesn't flow through my veins like the others in my family."

"Is that why you've come to me? He asked. "What makes you think I want a broken Trilobite from Po'Darro's leanage who can't do magic?"

Quickly, she turned to Ku with anger in her eyes, and then shoved him with all her might. A purple glow encompassed her body and her eyes turned the color of amber. Ku flew to the other side of the river and crashed into some bushes. He immediately realized that she did have powers, but it was the power of strength. "I hate you, Ku!"

When he tried to run back to her, he slipped on a puddle of a black liquid that oozed from the ground near the body of water. It had been nearly a year since he had visited the old river that lied on the far west edge of Trilobite territory. The black liquid was all over his clothes, hands and face, and he knew immediately what it was. "Oh my, Ptah!" He screamed.

"You'll need Ptah if you try anything," she said, "I'm so angry with you right now."

"No! It's oil," he said, "Pure oil. The kind of oil that Cast needs."

"Oh, that?" She said, "That's why I brought you here, idiot."

He immediately knew he made a mistake underestimating her powers, and then abruptly apologized.

Current time:

James traversed over the land at great speeds until he came to a small farm on the edge of the Munchkin Country where Tavi Socrates lived. The unicorns frolicked about on the edge of his property and he loved their majestic beauty. From what he counted, the old man owned about thirteen, white unicorns that he kept in a pen. He wanted to ask JJ what happened to the one-horned animals and did they ever exist on Earth. Unfortunately, he didn't have much time to take in the scenery because some activity was happening on Tavi's property.

He needed the old Scarecrow's help because he knew exactly who had the powerful, Enchanted Ax needed to kill the King of Winkie Country and Emerald City. He paused for a moment, thought about killing the Tin Man, and then remembered what Kara said, "We don't kill." But at the same time, he was dealing with an entity that was willing to slaughter an entire village. In the back of his mind, he asked himself, "What would the Vulcan do?" He laughed a little and then continued to walk towards the house.

Mary told him quite a bit about Tavi, but also said he wasn't to be trusted due to what he did to Nick, the Tin Man. From James' point of view, Mary didn't care for Tavi at all, but when it came to what he had to do, he didn't care about the man's past. He knew he had information on how to traverse the land to Winkie Country, the place where the Enchanted Ax resided. According to her, Oz had more than one monster he'd have to circumvent, including the dragon, Ishtar, who protected the entrance to the Emerald City. The Tin Man put it in place when three witches tried to attack him by land, so he put a moat around the city with the dragon patrolling it.

He spent another night with Tre'Yan in her small cottage before heading to Tavi's farm. He finished up with Mary and the evening meal around seven o'clock, and then Tre'Yan took him back to her cottage and washed his feet. She had some important questions of him because he was able to handle a punch by the Tin Man like no man of flesh or steel could.

"So, according to Vega Star's historical documents on the universe, Ptah and his wife made a formula that saved the Kryptonians," she said as she washed his feet in some warm, soapy water. "When she saved them, they became a blight on the verse until Ptah turned their yellow sun red." She paused for a moment, and then looked up at him. "Is that the source of your strength? This formula?"

"I don't know if it's the same formula," he said calmly, "But it must be similar since I have all the Kryptonian attributes, but when I'm exposed to kryptonite, I only lose my powers, but it doesn't hurt me or kill me in any way."

She smiled. "According to the ancient text written by the Trilobite, Po Ladious, who crashed landed on Vega Star over a million years ago, Ptah created the formula to save the Kryptonian race. When they're exposed to Kryptonite, it removes the protective barrier around their cells and allows the ancient virus to run amok in their systems. On Crest Star, a world full of dragons and demons, Ptah sent in a young female he called the Herald to the Destroyer. On some worlds, they refer to her as the Harbinger. She's more intelligent than all others and duplicates Ptah's original formula from memory. We actually have a team of scientists searching the galaxy for this woman, but Po Ladious formula for finding the Harold is so complex that our best scientists haven't figured it out. She prepares a body for the Destroyer."

"So, the woman who gave me the formula is of the gods too?" He asked with a grimace on his face.

"Indeed," she said, "She's the first daughter of Ptah and Orion and she returns every two thousand years to bring forth her brother, The Destroyer, and his wife, Sayd. If I had this formula, I could return to Moxia, build an army, and stop the war before it spills over to Vega Star and Brion Noir."

"But what of Path?" He asked.

"According to the ruling class of Moxia, they used a weapon on Ptah that caused him to kill himself," she said, "He's nothing more than something we worship now."

Honestly, he didn't know what to make of her hospitality because earlier in the day, she practically kicked him out of her house when he told her he killed Randolph. For the next hour or so she insisted on discussing Orion, but he only knew superficial stuff about her. She placed her right hand on his knee when she asked, "Have you ever seen her in action?"

"Not exactly," he said with a strange look on his face. He didn't know where she was going with the question. "She's always with JJ."

"JJ? Is he a god?" She asked with a smile. Slowly, she slid her right hand up and down his muscular legs and laughed a bit. "We have literature on Orion that goes back a million years. In some places, she's worshipped above Ptah and revered in every corner of the galaxy. The legend states that when the ruling class unleashed their weapon against him, she wiped nearly half of them out until the Great Mother stopped her."

James felt somewhat aroused by her hand as she slid it up and down his legs and tried to regain focus. He then said, "I don't know that much about her history, but she's with JJ right now. I'm only familiar with the kid whose powers go beyond anything I've ever seen." He paused for a moment, and then said, "He stated that one day he'd go through his apotheosis and then leave Earth for the good of the universe."

The entire time he sat on her couch she repeatedly asked him about the flying disc, but he only knew so much. She eventually said, "If this JJ hasn't reached his full potential, he probably can't open a portal to Vega Star like Ptah could. Only the gods can move seamlessly through space and time."

James looked over at her for a moment, and then said, "He can phase shift, but I don't know if he can leap to other worlds."

"It's okay," she said, "Orion can. In fact, I'm almost sure history states she has a digital map of the Speed Force."

He didn't refute what she said about Orion because he always thought she was more powerful than she claimed to be, and when JJ returned from Africa, they seemed a lot closer and almost intimate with each other. It was a bizarre relationship they had since Peppermint was his fiance. And what made everything more bizarre was that she didn't seem to mind his relationship with Orion.

After discussing Orion for about thirty minutes, Tre'Yan made some herbal tea out of yellow and black tea leaves from Winkie Country. She crutched them on a cutting board, placed them in some boiling water, and then let it cool down for about five minutes. "You'll enjoy this tea, James. It has a unique flavor and it relaxes you."

"I do enjoy a good cup of tea," he said. He leaned back on the couch and relaxed for a moment.

"If you defeat the Tin Man, it'll free the stronghold he has on the skies," she said as she brought him a cup of herbal tea. "It would allow for the faster flow of goods between the kingdoms. When I arrived on this world, the locusts attacked my ship as I crashed landed on this rock. I thought for sure they'd kill me."

The next morning...

When he woke up the next morning and heard his host fiddling around in the kitchen, he sat up and looked over at her, but he felt awfully groggy. She fixed some unicorn meat sandwiches that he placed in his backpack, and even though she wanted to come with him, he said, "No. It's going to be a dangerous mission." He rubbed his temples and eyes because he felt somewhat tired like he had been drinking the previous day.

"Then how will I know you won't leave me to rot here?" She asked with a grimace, "You could just leave me behind if your friends come."

"Saving people is what we do," he said confidently, "If my comrades find me, we'll get you home." James didn't quite understand the Speed Force because he offered to help a person escape it without understanding the consequences of his actions. He was under the impression that she fell through a tear in space and time, but the Speed Force didn't make mistakes. If he helped her escape the prison, the Speed Force would track him down and he'll have to take her place.

When he left out of Tre'Yan's cottage, he urinated on the edge of her property, and do to the awkward feeling in his penis, he knew they'd engaged in coitus again. It had been two days since he had seen Lena, and as far as he knew, he hadn't had sex with anybody except her in the last, several months. Frustrated, he took off through the woods at a high rate of speed and arrived at Tavi's farm within two minutes of leaving Tre'Yan's house.

When he reached the farm, he noticed several tin-like men, much smaller than the Tin Man, hauling off some of Tavi's possessions in an old, beat-up truck that hovered about two feet off the ground. "Where are you going with all that stuff?" James asked as the truck traveled past him.

"He owes W. J.," the tin man said, "Either pay your debts or we'll come for your stuff." The passenger then laughed as the vehicle rolled past James with Tavi's possessions in the back of it. It was the first time he saw a vehicle that truly hovered.

With his x-ray vision, he looked in the old, broken-down house and saw him cooking over a pot-belly stove. From what James could tell, the old man didn't care that the tin men repossessed his stuff. He saw six unicorns grazing on the property and for nearly a mile was nothing but corn. It was the early morning and the two suns hardly peeked over the eastern horizon. The smell of sausages cooking imbued the morning air; it made it all the better. According to Mary, Tavi was actually called Tavi Socrates, but in the old days, they called him the Scarecrow. In his early days, he was an entity made up of straw and tattered clothes, and due to his state, he didn't think he had much of a brain.

When Dorothy left Oz the first time, it saddened the Scarecrow a great deal because he grew fond of the young woman. He returned to Munchkin Country after she left and tried his best to grow corn on the small farm the Princess of Oz, Ozma, gave him for his service to the kingdom. He wanted to forget that he loved Dorothy, but it was hard to do. During their journey-when the Scarecrow was feeling down-she allowed him to hold her in his thin arms when some strong, straight-line winds interrupted their trek. They sat against a large rock about a yard off the yellow brick road and talked about life as the winds picked up speed. It was no secret-according to Mary-that Tavi and Dorothy were passionately in love, and as they sat against the rock, he gently kissed her on the right cheek.

"You shouldn't do that, Scarecrow," she said sheepishly as she placed her right hand over the portion of her face where his lips touched. "I feel your passion, but in my world, our love wouldn't be allowed."

"But we're not on your world," he said calmly. "I know I'm just a man made of straw, but I have passion, Dorothy Gale. We can live among the Munchkins and make love under the three moons of Oz. I have feelings and they're all for you."

Due to the fact he loved Dorothy with all his heart, her absence caused him a great deal of pain and suffering. But he knew if he had the power, he wouldn't be able to survive in Dorothy's world because he was nothing more than hay and raggedy clothing. The humans would shun him without question, and burn him at the stake like they do the people they considered undesirables. But one day, a day when the Munchkins threw a festive celebration, a gaggle of witches arrived at the party; they carried with them all their belongings because of the war between the Tins and the Irons in the northern part of Oz. He rummaged through one of the witch's effects and found an old, tattered book of spells. He discovered an incantation to turn himself into a mortal being like the woman he loved, but it came at a hefty price. According to the disclaimer on the conjuration, the price to turn himself flesh was the soul of his closest friend.

At first, Tavi didn't believe the disclaimer on the spell. He enjoyed his human form immensely and all of his thoughts were on bringing Dorothy back to Oz. But when he heard that Nick entered into the war between the Irons and the Tins and he slaughtered the entire Tin army without remorse and took over their kingdom, he knew the warning on the incantation had merit. Once Nick defeated the Tins, he coated his iron limbs in the smelted tin of his enemies so he'd never had to experience the pain of rusting again. He descended on Oz a few weeks later and murdered Ozma, the Princess of Oz, in an old basement room on the bottom floor. He placed her head on a spike at the entrance to Emerald City according to the legend so all who saw it would know he meant business. When Dorothy returned to Oz, she re-entered the verse through Munchkin Country and arrived at Tavi's house, and when she saw him in his new form, she fell in love with him immediately. For two years, they made passionate love under the three moons of Oz, but never produced an offspring.

After the Tin Man's terror brought the war between the Tins and the Irons to an end, the witches returned to their ancestral home in the north. Tavi knew he didn't have the essence it took to make a baby inside of him, but he thought with the right magic, he could make his man parts fertilize Dorothy's eggs. He never consulted with her once on why she didn't get pregnant because he felt uncomfortable with the topic. For some reason, he assumed the reason why she didn't get pregnant had to do with him and the spell so he did everything in his power to correct the problem on his end. He came to the witches and asked them to cast a spell so he could make a baby with Dorothy, but they pleaded with him to reconsider what he was asking, for they didn't detect a problem with his manhood. Unfortunately, he demanded the witches cast a spell, any spell so they did, and when they did, the price was Dorothy's trusting nature. After the witches cast the spell, Dorothy suspected Tavi had another woman in the Munchkin village, and because of that suspicion, she ran to the Tin Man for solace. But before she left, she told Tavi that she was barren and could never have his child.

Dorothy's Story…

"I might've escaped to Oz the first time, Tavi," she said calmly. She fidgeted with her hands for a moment and then said, "I was only thirteen in eighteen-ninety-seven." She paused for a moment, smiled, and then said, "Aunt Em made me the prettiest spring dresses with flowers and other little doodles on them. All the boys took a liking to me because I was fair." She smiled uncomfortably.

"What does this have to do with us?" He asked.

"Just give me a minute, Tavi?" She asked with her hands on her hips. "I was only thirteen, playing with my dolls, and helping Aunt Em make dinner for all the boys. I was a girl that did girl things," she said, "And sometimes I did boy things like climb trees and fish in the old pond down a ways from the farmhouse." She walked over to the old, red brick fireplace for a moment. She had a glass of chicory tea on the shelf next to it that she babied for over an hour. "It's funny how all the compliments from the boys made me feel special." For a moment, she spoke softly and said, "It was Saturday, September the fourth when I went to the outhouse to tinkle." She crookedly smiled for a moment, and then said, "Zeke drank some of the Olsen's apple moonshine outside of the old barn where he slept."

"You want some of this shine?" He asked with his hideous smile. "He had pretty much a mouth full of rotten teeth from chewing tobacco and eating hard candy from the Olsen's Corner Store in Liberal. "Shoot! Nigger Julian dropped off some Apple Moonshine and cinnamon candy for me. Want some?" He asked. Holding out a fist full of hard candy, she took a few, stuck them in her mouth, and smiled. "Now have a splash of this shine?!"

Quickly, she took a swig of the alcohol, and said, "It burns so good." She wiped the excess moisture off her thin lips, and then asked, "How much do you owe them rich niggers?"

"Five dollars," he said with a grimace. "I got a couple of shovels, shine, gloves, and a raincoat. Want another hit of this shine?" He asked, "The Olsens make this stuff by the boatload."

She grabbed the bottle, rocked her head backward, and then took a gulp of the alcoholic beverage, enough of it that it caused her to feel tipsy. "I feel it, Zeke." She looked over at Tavi, and then said, "It's funny how I wondered if he wanted to kiss me. His mouth looked like a pile of horse dung, but I wanted him to kiss me nonetheless," she said. "Earlier in that week of September, I tried to get Julian Olsen to kiss me, but he ran away like that nigger stole something. 'No no, Miss Dorothy!' He said as he ran down the dirt road. I laughed at him. But at the same time, I felt a little dizzy from the strong drink. I laid up against the barn with my legs spread apart, and my white, flowery spring dress hugged my crotch. Zeke looked back at me for a moment and smiled. It was a hideous smile too."

"You ought not to sit like that," he said as he took another swig of his Apple Moonshine. "People might think you're not a nice girl."

"I began to laugh," she said as she wiped her mouth. "The Cooper girl married at twelve and her husband was forty-two. I was thirteen and Zeke was thirty-three," she said in a serious tone. "I looked Zeke directly in the face, and said, 'Maybe I don't want to be nice anymore. Ever think about that?' He didn't say anything after that. His back was facing me, and I thought the night was coming to a close when all of a sudden his large hands were rubbing over my crotch. The moment overwhelmed me, and then Aunt Em screamed my name so loudly that it scared the shit out of me. I ran from around the barn, and said, 'Yes, ma'am? I wasn't doing nothing.'"

"She looked at me with her beady eyes, and said, 'I never said you were doing anything, little girl. It's time for bed.'"

"For what seemed like an hour but was only a few minutes, I stood in the middle of my bedroom thinking about how Zeke touched me. There was a bit of a thrill with having an older man seeing me as a woman. It was almost inexplicable because I didn't know what I wanted at the time. I remembered the bedpost came right up to my crotch and I leaned against it. It pressed right against my womanhood. It didn't take much before my legs started trembling. I had a cathartic moment and nothing after that mattered. I had some good sleep over the next two days, went to school on Monday, came home, and helped Aunt Em with dinner. "

"It sounds like normal behavior," he said.

"Perhaps," she said, "But I still wanted more. I still wanted Zeke and I didn't care how he looked. He lived in the barn and I wandered into his space the next night after everybody went to sleep. I didn't even wear any undergarments when I ran into that barn. He lay on his back, smelling of shine and funk. It probably was the strongest, mustiest odor I had ever smelled up to that point. When he saw me, he said, 'Girl, what do you want?' I squatted over him, undid his pants, and straddled him. It didn't take long at all. I visited him as much as possible for three months until one morning I threw up my breakfast. Just the thought of eating made me sick to my stomach. It was December the twenty-first, a Tuesday when Doctor Blanchard gave me a coat-hanger abortion. Not only did he abort my baby, but he also ruined my chances of having another one. So, if you want a child, you'll have to go to your Munchkin whore for that."

End of Dorothy's Story

Unfortunately, Dorothy took the mono-train to Emerald City, and that was a horrible mistake. The Tin Man raped Dorothy with his steel penis, killing her and throwing her dead body to Randolph, the three-headed monster.

When Mary told James Tavi's story, it caused him a great deal of pain and he immediately knew Oz was just as cruel as Earth in every way imaginable. He thought back to his childhood when he lived in a remote location in Central Africa with his father and his father's girlfriend. He worked for a branch of Cadmus called Argus from the time he was a small boy living on the edge of Metropolis. For years, his father was in and out of James' life until his mother grew ill; she died of ovarian cancer. It ravished her body. At first, the state of Kansas put him into foster care until his father picked him up and took him to Gotham for six years. He lived a hard life in Gotham because the other kids constantly picked on him for his awkwardness. At the time, he was only about six-years-old when his father started training him in combative arts. Every day when he returned home from school, he went over the martial arts techniques that he learned previously and then his father would teach him something new.

When he turned twelve, his father received orders for Central Africa, and due to the inexpensive cost of living, they had a huge house. It was a hard time for James because he missed his friends in Gotham, and when it came to his new home, he didn't have many friends. Often, he overheard confidential subjects in the home, but his father made him keep everything a secret. His father often practiced martial arts with him on the veranda of their lucrative home. During his first year in Central Africa, he met a kid named Veo Eli, a young local boy who was extremely generous. Often, he shared his cookies with James as they ran around the city. One night when he was about a fourteen-years-old-a group of soldiers rushed into his home, raped his father's girlfriend, and shot his father in the head, and then tried to kill him, but Veo saved his life. He distracted the men while he got away. James smiled for a moment as he thought about his friend Veo, but never saw the kid again in his life. He often wondered what happened to the child and thought it was funny that JJ's son from his other life was named Veo too.

Tavi walked out the front door of his farmhouse with an ax, and as James walked up to him, he turned toward him quickly with the wood-chopping instrument and raised it far above his head. The old man with graying hair winced, screamed in fear, and then said, "Great Ptah! You scared the crap out of me. I thought you were part of the repo crew." He set the weapon on the ground, took a deep breath, and then asked, "What can I do for you, son?"

James thought the old man didn't look anything like the crude drawings of the Scarecrow from his childhood. He didn't have skinny, cartoon-like extremities or made of hay; he was just an ordinary man, a man that resembled a medium built black man with woolly hair. He had a slight accent but he wasn't sure where it originated. It sounded British, but he knew the man never stepped foot off Oz. "I need your help, Tavi," James said, "Can you help me take down the Tin Man?"

The old man looked befuddled with his scraggly whiskers and weather-warn face. He looked like the farm had beaten him, but when he gave it a little thought, he knew it wasn't the farm at all; it was life in general, life on Oz that brought him to the brink of madness. "You want to go against the Tin Man?" He asked in disbelief. "You're on your own!"

"If we don't take him down, he'll attack the Munchkins," he said, "A lot of good people will die."

"Listen, the Tin Man has grown in power over the last one hundred years," he said, "Far stronger now than when…"

"When you stole his soul?" James asked with a serious visage.

"I see Mary has given you some history," he said with a scowl on his face. "I was young, hungry, and downright lonely. I sacrificed it all for a girl." He shook his head in disagreement, and then said, "Nick is an unstoppable force imbued by the darkest of magic now. The witches gave him the power of ten thousand men." He paused for a moment and then looked James directly in the eyes, and said, "And then I stole his soul for flesh and that turned him into an unfeeling, killing machine. I was selfish, but I take solace in the two years I spent with my one true love, Dorothy Gale."

"Mary told me that you had a great deal of love for her," he said calmly, "But now we must stop the same machine that killed her before he kills a lot of innocent people."

"It would take more than a little strength to wield the Tin Man's sacred ax," he said with a grimace, "It's much bigger and heavier than an ordinary ax now."

He listened to the old man carry on about the Tin Man's ax, and then said, "I had enough strength to kill Randolph without breaking a sweat."

Tavi looked at him for a moment and then said, "That monster was a juggernaut and a ruthless killer of the Munchkins, and I never made a profit from my corn because of him. Unfortunately, Ishtar, the dragon who patrols the moat around Emerald City, is far more ferocious." He turned toward the direction of the old tarn and said, "Dorothy's essence is in that old pond. If I'm killed on this foolhardy mission, promise me you'll cremate my body and spread my ashes in it so I can be with my Dorothy?"

"I will," James said, "But why does the Tin Man hate the Munchkins so?"

"The Munchkins abandoned him when the ax first removed his limbs," he said calmly, "They were going to let him die. When he received his iron limbs, he returned to his wife, Mary, and she rejected him. He left the village and rusted on the fringes of Munchkin Country. Mary had taken his enchanted ax and placed it under her bed for safekeeping. But after the phony Wizard stepped down in Oz, Mary called the Tin Man back to her cottage and they supposedly renewed their relationship. Unfortunately, it wasn't Mary at all, but the Wicked Witch in the form of Mary. When the Tin Man lay on the bed quietly sleeping, the witch reached under the bunk, grabbed the ax, and then removed the Tin Man's phallus. He ran to Ku-Klip who gave him a steel penis and then to a coven of powerful witches. It was that coven where the most powerful witches on Oz emanated from and they imbued him with great powers and protection, making it so only the ax that made him could hurt him."

James listened carefully to every word out of Tavi's mouth, and then asked, "But what happened to the Wicked Witch who severed his member?"

He walked to the fence and looked over at the unicorns as they grazed in the grass. "I didn't find out until after I accidentally stole Nick's soul the entire story." He wiped his mouth and then spoke about the Wicked Witch of the West and her plight. "Nick was a strong Munchkin when he was whole according to Mary. He was in the business of supplying the Munchkin community with firewood when the witch noticed him. She knew a Munchkin of Nick's caliber wouldn't go for a shriveled up old witch. So, she stole his limbs to make herself a new man with Nick's parts. But it wasn't until I wanted more out of my life that everything went south."

"What do you mean?" James asked calmly.

"I loved Dorothy so, but she would never go for a man full of hay," he said with a sad look on his face. "I spent almost a year studying the craft before I found the information I needed to turn myself into flesh." He paused for a second as tears raced down his face. "Once I finished with the spell, the lion died almost immediately. He stood in front of his people giving a speech for the new kingdom he planned on building for them. While he was speaking, he collapsed and died. I don't know why that happened. It wasn't planned."

"But what about Nick? Did you plan on taking his soul?" He asked.

"I didn't think it through," he said with a grimace, "I was selfish. Everything in the ancient text said a soul must be sacrificed, and all I could think about was Nick." He folded his slightly muscular arms and cried a bit, and then said, "The witch took his right arm, his left arm, his right leg, his left leg, and then his penis. All I took was his soul! I didn't think it mattered!" He screamed, "But it changed him in ways that I didn't calculate. After that, he entered the war between the Irons and the Tins and devastated the Tins. He smelted them down and coated his armor with their silver colored blood. He then went into Oz and massacred the Royal Guards and raped to death the Princess of Oz. It was all so sad, but I had a fleshy body and Dorothy to alleviate my discomfort with what I had done."

"I thought the Wicked Witch of the West died," James said, "Didn't Dorothy throw water on her or something?"

Tavi laughed. "When Dorothy returned to Oz, I read the book and I think she had it written that way because it was a better story," he said, "Water doesn't kill witches, son. When Nick took over Oz, he filled the sky with acid-filled locusts that attacked any creature flying fifty feet or higher. All the witches attempted to attack Nick from the air when he assumed power, but the locusts spewed acid spit all over them, killing them instantly. Now, nobody takes to the air for any reason."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Cast became Ku's most loyal worker, and as soon as the iron man regained his strength, he built an alarm system in the middle of MunchkinLand. It was a red button in a glass case, and in case of emergency, anybody in town could push the button. It was the first major thing he did for the Munchkin people.

Cast helped Ku with the land, and Ku helped Cast with as much black crude oil as he needed. And as far as he knew, the oil that his Munchkins collected near the river was plentiful, but before they harvested the black goo, they often ate breakfast next to the clandestine caves near the river. The caves set off in the distance, some one hundred yards from the body of water, but weren't visible at first sight. Most of the Munchkins didn't enter into the musty caves, but Ku and Po'Aga did. The blue men who harvested the oil near the river weren't the night workers, the ones who worked the fields, but the men who liked to feast on Booshi drinks and dine on corn dishes.

Not one animal lived in the waters on Ozarrio in the early days of their incarceration on the world, a troublesome situation since Ku grew up on meat products in his former life. But now, most of the people except for the demigods and Ku had never eaten meat. The rivers and oceans were completely void of animal life including fish, but at the same time, Ku often found himself with a fishing pole going through the motions while he sat back and enjoyed the cooler fall temperatures.

The darkness often crept upon the area and pretty much overtook the light by seven o'clock in the evening, and then the three moons would rise high into the sky and the pain of the two suns would cease. Ku and Po'Aga wandered down to the caves when the two suns ceased to exist in the sky and made love under the three moons. But for the Trilobites to find out about his relationship with Po'Aga was a terrifying idea because they would ostracize her due to Ku's status as the cursed one. But within the Munchkin community, the immortal man sat at the head of the table and his people considered him their king.

The river flowed quietly. Not one animal or fish existed in the water, but as the water flowed through the rocks, it let off a serene hum. In the day time, the rain fell to the ground in large drops, feeding the river all day long. Toward the bottom of the river in a separate watering hole was a puddle of black ooze, nourishment for Cast. And with the help of hundreds of Munchkins, they kept the iron giant full on the black crude. And as time passed, Ku began to sell the crude to the Trilobites for a hefty price, and they used it as an energy source to run their village.

Since the arrival of the iron giant, a series of anomalies happened in space that could be seen with the naked eye: explosions, meteor showers, and then the arrival of several small rodents that nobody had seen on the planet in the past. The immortal soul did everything within his power to stop the rodents from ruining his corn crops, but it was a never-ending struggle, the kind of struggle that caused him to employ an army of Munchkins to ensure his crops survived. They policed the area for the pesky rodents and made different poisons made out of the poppy seeds to kill them.

At night, when both the Trilobites and the Munchkins worked in the fields and harvested the crops, Ku and Po'Aga would sneak off to the caves near the river and Cast continued to work the fields with the Munchkins. In those days, he primarily lived off the crude oil from near the river and enjoyed the oil from the Booshi Fruit as a treat, an enjoyment that his system couldn't afford to enjoy every day because it would make him sick. But as Cast took care of the crops, Ku and Po'Aga made love on the fringes of their perspective societies because Po'Darro, her direct descendants, wouldn't allow her to be with the curse one. Ku knew of Po'Darro's disdain for him, and it went way back, over some thousand years when he killed him.

"My love for you is strong, Ku," said Po'Aga as she leaned against a large rock that set near their favorite cave. "Ozarrio is changing every day, but not Po'Darro. He tells the Trilobites to stay clear of the Munchkins."

Ku looked over at his beloved and tried to put on a happy face, and then said, "Do you know what happened between us?" For some reason, he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear her answer.

"You killed him with your enchanted ax," she said with a serious look on her face. "The Great Orion brought him back to life, but cursed you."

"Cursed me to never die," he quipped. "It's my curse, and if you join my house, it'll be yours too."

"I'm not afraid," she said, "I love you no matter what the gods say."

"But you'll age and I won't," he said, "You'll see my youthful appearance and it'll tear at your soul." He kicked a small rock and it rolled over near the cave. "I love you, Po'Aga. You'll be the queen of the Munchkins."

For a while, their love was a clandestine love that happened in secret spaces. Their love flourished over the course of three months, but when Po'Darro found out the old, cursed one had sex with his descendant, he confronted him in Munchkin land.

Ku figured at some point the boy he raised would take exception to his relationship with one of his offshoots, but he didn't care. She was a soft woman, a woman with a shapely body and he loved her. He battled her for her hand in marriage, and it took all of his strength and skills to bring her to her knees because she had powers. But if a Trilobite wasn't forced into a relationship like Ptah did Orion in the days of old, then the relationship was considered illegitimate.

"I've had a long time to think about things, Ku," Po'Darro said with a grimace. "You've always known Orion's plan to trap us in the Speed Force. And now that we've grown used to this world, you betrothed one of my descendants, a move that goes against the good order of things."

"We're adults, son," Ku said calmly. "Don't you think it's madness to stop the natural flow of love? You did the same thing between J'Piana and me all those years ago."

He scoffed. "Your homosexual love was forbidden. You killed me with your ax," he said.

"Because you killed J'Piana with your magic!" He snapped. "I loved him."

"I was impulsive on that day," he said. Ku could see the grief in his eyes. "But he broke the law of the land." He shook his head for a moment, and then said, "If not for Orion, I'd be dead. All I need you to do is stay away from my descendants. You are the Klip and that's for eternity."

"Trilobites have married Munchkins, and you haven't said anything," Ku said, "So, why are you standing between Po'Aga and me?"

"Cause you're the cursed one," he said, "Not your descendants."

Ku turned his back to Po'Darro, and then said, "We're already married according to the rules of Ptah."

"Damn you, Ku!" He exclaimed, "Damn you to Chthonic."

Later…

Days passed. Ku sat on the northern edge of his corn crop while Cast worked in the field. The two suns were high in the sky so most of the Munchkins were asleep until around the six o'clock hour. But since Ku hadn't seen Po'Aga in more than a few days, he couldn't sleep. He thought for a moment and wondered if she said something about a previous engagement, but he couldn't remember. About one hundred yards up the hill set a small tarn where he'd dip his feet to cool off a bit, and then Cast walked over to him.

"What's on your mind?" Cast asked.

"It's Po'Aga," he said in a soft voice. "I haven't seen her in two, whole days." The large, metal man took a deep breath, and then Ku asked, "What?"

"What? Nothing," he said, "It's just you had a poignant talk with Po'Darro the other day. He probably has something to do with her absence."

Looking across the tarn, he saw something splash on the far end of the body of water, and then said, "What was that?" Quickly, he hopped out the tarn and both he and the metal giant ran to the other end of the pond. Slowly, he bent over the clear water and looked around it for a moment, and then out of nowhere, a small fish flew into the sky and made a mini splash in the water. "Did you see that?" He asked.

"Indeed," Cast said, "It's due to the Great War. Ptah banished entire worlds into the Speed Force for siding with the Oans. He's not showing any mercy this time."

Ku bowed his head for a moment, and then said, "The universe will never be the same with the gods at war with each other."

Cast and the cursed one walked into the Munchkin village together, and he grabbed his Enchanted Ax from his hovel because he didn't trust Po'Darro. It had been a long time, some five hundred years since he stepped foot in the land of the Trilobites, and they hated him. Often, he saw them walking along the road near his house, but he never engaged them except when it came time to betrothed one of them. No matter how the stigma of the curse presented itself to the Trilobite people, at least one would always choose him as a mate. And as they reached the end of their lives, he felt an enormous pain in his heart every time a spouse died, and in his mind, that was the worse of the curse. So, when it came to Po'Aga, he didn't want to risk the children he raised doing something crazy to her. He put his Enchanted Ax into Po'Darro's chest a thousand years earlier and didn't mind doing so again if the situation called for it.

The Trilobite city appeared empty when he walked into it with his Enchanted Ax strapped to his right hip. The iron machine looked into one of the cottage's windows, and then back at Ku. "Something doesn't feel right," said Cast, "It's too quiet."

The rows of hovels all looked the same, and as far back as he could remember, the elite class of Trilobites lived on top of the hill. But from what he could tell, all the hovels seemed lifeless as if nobody was in the village. There was a pool of green, Trilobite blood on the ground, and Cast bent down and touched it with his left, iron index finger. "What's that?" Asked Ku.

"Blood," he said in his low pitched voice. "I'm seeing specks of it everywhere."

The little Munchkin walked around the town square for a moment, and with the back of his ax, he drew a circle around all the drops of blood he found. "This definitely isn't from the mating ritual," said Ku, "If so, then it was a brutal one." When the dull side of his ax hit the surface on the concrete one more time, he heard another noise coming from the southern region of the city. It sounded metallic, like a foot hitting the ground.

Immediately, Ku ran toward the noise with Cast following close behind him, and then when they saw the thirteen, tin men holding the town hostage on the fringes of the city, they came to an abrupt halt.

"It's the tins!" Exclaimed Cast, "They're a brutal race of metals that the gods used in place of the irons."

Watching them with a keen eye, the majority of the town's people were huddled in the middle of the open field on the outskirts of town near the southern border. It appeared the tins stood approximately seven feet tall and had shields attached to their left arms. Their faces were solid black with silver heads and two missiles set on top of their shoulders. He tried to search through the crowd of people for Po'Darro, the boy he raised into a man, but couldn't find him or his siblings. They had powers, the powers of gods, and probably had the ability to defeat the tins, but he didn't see any of them. Suddenly, one of the tins reached into the ground, pulled up Po'Darro's body out of it, and then Ku gasped in fear. His son's body looked lifeless from his position, but then out of nowhere, he wiggled away from the tin's grip and threw a bolt of lightning at the metal giant. The electricity had little to no effect on it, but when Po struck him with his fist, the metal machine flew across the field. Immediately, the twelve other tin men pounded Po to the ground.

Ku and his metal friend ran off in the opposite direction to amass a fighting force against the thirteen tins. They ran all the way back to Munchkin territory, and when they arrived at their city, his two other children were already there: Vo Dax and Bri'Ogden La. They were standing next to the red alarm button that Cast build in case of an emergency. Ku looked at his adoptive daughter's face for a moment, and she was much older than the last time he saw her. Her black hair had turned gray and her face had wrinkles.

"Father, you haven't aged," she said with a half smile. With her hands placed in front of her body, she smiled at him and some of her teeth had turned black.

"It's the curse," he said, "Although I may not age, I feel the pain of death every time my people die."

"Then you should prepare yourself because the tins have killed twenty of our people," she said, "Including your beloved, Po'Aga."

Ku began to shake and then stumbled backward, but Cast caught him before he fell to the ground. "Are you sure?" Asked Ku, "Did you see her body?"

Vo walked over to his adoptive father and said, "We didn't see her body, but we believe she was part of the Trilobites they incinerated."

"We begged for Orion to send us more people to this world," Bri'Ogden said, "But it looks like she sent killers." She walked directly in front of her adoptive father. "We have powers, but the tins are stronger than us and can repel our electrical current. Even my witchcraft can only do so much against the metal."

Ku reached up to the red alert button, flipped up the glass casing, and pressed it. It made a frightening alarm that reverberated throughout the village, and when the Munchkin's heard it, they came running out their hovels with their weapons.

 ****

Vera walked out of her bedroom in her loose fitting shorts wearing a wrinkled t-shirt and JJ stumbled out of his room wearing some sweats with Orion and Veo right behind him, and then Vera passed gas down the long hallway. It was a loud, lingering antagonizing fart that made JJ laugh and Orion cringe. "See! This is why I don't want to be flesh," she said, "Just remove my sensors, JJ."

"Because I farted?" Vera asked.

to

"Cause your ass stink!" She exclaimed. "You should just throw your whole damn butt away."

JJ laughed, and then Vera said, "I remember that time you passed gas in grade school, JJ. It gave me PTSD because your butt was right by my head and stunk like a dead bison."

Orion laughed, "He's been farting on me for five million years and not one of them has been godly." They continued their journey into the massive living room and JJ dove onto the couch, turned on the television, and watched the news for a moment.

When Peppermint walked out of the bedroom into the hallway, she screamed, "Who did it? JJ?"

"Vera," Veo said loudly.

"I'm innocent," JJ said laughingly.

"I thought you had my back, Veo?!" Vera exclaimed.

"I'm just telling the truth," Veo said, "We can weaponize your gas and call it get-on-my-nerves agent."

Moments later...

Peppermint quickly walked into the kitchen and had JJ Jr. in her arms. "Take him while I cook breakfast, Vera?" She asked as she handed the baby over to her. "Are bacon and eggs good with y'all?" She asked with her hands on her hips. She stood in the threshold of the door that connected to the kitchen.

"Sounds like a winner," JJ said as he lay on the couch with Orion hovering over his head and displaying a diagram of an electronic device on the far wall.

Peppermint put a slab of bacon in the oven while Orion and JJ went over the diagram for their new machine to try to communicate with James in the Speed Force. Vera sat with JJ Jr. on the couch and he played with a set of large, lime green and lemon yellow keys. The television set was on the lowest volume and was nothing more than background noise. "I'm upset that the orbs only have thirty to forty minutes of power."

"If we designed the batteries that would allow these Orbs of Destruction to fly all day, we'd revolutionize the battery industry on this planet," she said, "We have to be careful and not interfere in human development any more than needed."

He paused for a moment, and then said telepathically to Orion, "I'd like to think the human race could learn to move past all the hate. We could make the food replicators needed so nobody in this world goes hungry. We could make an unlimited energy source that would help heal the planet itself."

"You've developed feelings for these creatures. It's not the first time you've fallen in love with a doomed species and it won't be the last time. The probability of them putting aside their differences and coming together as one people is remote," she said telepathically, "They're like the Battisons without the superhuman strength. They murder their own and punish their poor. They're greedy and full of hubris.."

JJ looked over at Vera as she sat on the couch with JJ Jr. in her lap and thought about a world where she didn't exist and it actually bothered him. By the time the human race died out completely, she'd be long dead herself. "You're right, Orion," he said telepathically, "I won't interfere with our assessment of these people. I won't interfere with Luciferous' mission."

Vera turned the channel on the television and relaxed in the Lazy Boy with JJ Jr. while eating some apple slices and Veo was parked on the right arm of her chair. Peppermint had the entire house smelling like bacon.

Suddenly, Orion said, "Receiving a call from Kara."

"Put her on?" JJ said as he studied his diagram closely.

"JJ, Lena is tearing up the Metropolis River looking for James," she said, "She drained most of the water out of it and then scoured the bottom for his body. It's turning into a real problem."

"What can I do?" He asked calmly.

"Put your little Vulcan uniform on and tell her you're on the case," she said, "It's the least you can do."

"Fine," he said as Orion hung up the phone on her.

"She's got an attitude," she said as she set on JJ's right soldier.

"All the time," Vera said calmly. "Veo and I could talk to Lena, ya know?"

JJ looked over at Vera and said, "Victory isn't ready for missions."

"You can't baby us forever," she snapped, "We're just as capable as the rest of the team."

"Victory was the reason we didn't have any casualties against the Incubus," Orion said, "Remember?"

"Don't you have class in an hour?" Peppermint asked, "We promised your mom that you wouldn't miss a lot of school living here."

"I can zip there and zip back," she said, "Easy peasy."

"Forget that," JJ said, "Orion and I will take care of this business. We'll talk to Lena and then be at the university in no time." He looked over at Vera as she sat quietly in the Lazy-boy and then said, "We'll have a training session this evening. I want to see how well your skills have improved." She gave him a salute but didn't say anything. He then used his telepathy, and said, "It's a cruel world. I'm sorry if you think I'm being overprotective, but you're important to the team."

"I don't feel like it," she said out loud.

"What was that?" Peppermint asked.

"I don't feel important," she said.

"You're very important," Peppermint said, "Please set this tray of eggs on the table? Time to eat!"

Later in the morning…

JJ and Orion flew to Metropolis in the Messiah and then set the car down on the fringes of the city. He then drove near the river and watched hundreds of men search a nearly dry riverbed and all throughout the area for any sign of James. Lena stood on a mound in a black dress with an umbrella that blocked the sun from her face, but it was easy to tell that it was her operation. He already donned his uniform and Orion fit in a pocket on his back. When he walked over to her, she didn't look at him right away. She had a stern look on her face as she continued to watch the men scour the empty riverbed.

"Lena, James isn't in the riverbed," he said calmly, "You're wasting time, money, and resources."

"They're mine to waste, Vulcan!" She exclaimed, "Don't worry about what I'm doing! I'm not hurting your bank accounts."

"I see you have a bit of an attitude about my money," he said with a grimace.

"You're not a superhero," she said, "You milk money from good businesses."

"What? Are you talking about Downing Chemical's payments to me?" He asked in an angry voice. "I don't work for free and a capitalistic society shouldn't expect me to." For a moment, he wanted to toss her in the river but quickly calmed. "I've already searched the entire area for James. He's not on this plane."

She looked over at him with her blue eyes, and then asked, "What plane is he on then?"

"There's another existence parallel to this one that holds trillions of planets in its band," he said, "He could be on any of those planets."

"Well, how much is all this going to cost me if you find him?" She asked with an ugly scowl on her face, "I really don't have four hundred million dollars to toss your way."

"You're a real bitch, Lena," he said, "I haven't a clue what a good man like James sees in a rat like you. Just the thought of coming home to a woman with your bitterness and anger makes me cringe."

"Fuck you, Vulcan. You don't have to worry about me," she said as she pointed to her chest with her right hand.

"I'll give you five minutes to clear your people out of the riverbed," he said.

"Or what?" She asked.

"Let me demonstrate the or what in terms that you understand!" He said as he waved his right hand and thunder clouds moved into the area. The clouds floated low to the ground and looked ominous in appearance. Lena looked at the Vulcan with an awkward stare. Lightning strikes hit the ground near the river bed. The Vulcan did that as a warning to the men in the water. At first, a small drop of water landed on Lena's umbrella as a warning to her. She looked up in the sky and a drop of water fell in her right eye.

"You did that on purpose," she said as she bent over to let the water drain out of her eye.

"I don't like you, Lena Luthor," he said. Suddenly, a flood of rain poured into the river. It began to fill back up with water so fast that the search crew barely had enough time to make it out of the riverbed.

"You're a piece of shit, Vulcan!" Lena exclaimed, "Are you trying to kill my people, you smug bastard?"

"No," he said, "I'll like a little appreciation for what I do instead of your condemnation all the damn time."

"I'll never approve of the likes of you," she said calmly, "You have far too much power for your own good." She turned directly to the Vulcan, and then said, "I will be spearheading legislation to outlaw masks so we will know who you super freaks are." The Vulcan walked away from Lena because he didn't think he could control himself around her any longer. "Vulcan, I'll like my Red Raider suit back as soon as possible?" She asked with a smug look on her face.

"It's dismantled," he said as he continued to walk to his car. "But I learned a lot from it.

"The tech in that suit is the property of LexCorp," she screamed, "If you've stolen any of my tech, I'll sue your ass."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The Tins ravished the Trilobite's villages, destroyed their crops, killed their people, and took Po'Aga from Ku, the oldest Trilobite who ever lived. They had fallen to the planet when they crossed Lord Ptah over the Neuronet, and then he vanquished them to the Speed Force. The metal titans were loyal followers of the Celestial Kingdom at one point, but Hermes recruited them to spy on Ptah and Oriona, but when the god found out his Tins weren't loyal, he banished them to the Speed Force, a dimension that they couldn't escape.

Ku didn't have evidence that the Tins killed Po'Aga, but his stepchildren, Bri'Ogden La and Vo Dax, said she was part of the ones the Tins burned. She was a strong Trilobite, the kind of Trilobite who descended from Ptah himself, and he was impervious to fire, but he didn't know about her. Unfortunately, he didn't know if his beloved had the same powers as her ancestor, but he prayed in the back of his mind that she did. He fell to his knees on several occasions and prayed that the Lord Ptah would show a modicum of mercy on him by letting his betrothed live through the fire. But at the same time, he knew Ptah couldn't hear his entreaties because nothing passed through the Speed Force into the main verse. It was the reason he built the place in the first place so the undesirables couldn't infect the rest of the verse.

All of the Munchkins took up arms to fight against the Tins when Ku called them to do so. The alien race of metal men who recently arrived on Ozarrio due to the Great War acted in a cruel and unjust manner against the Trilobites, and in due time, he felt they would eventually make a move against the Munchkins. But as Ku stood in front of his people, he did so with a broken heart; he could barely stand because the possible loss of his betrothed overwhelmed him. Her possible loss was something he wasn't prepared to fathom. His Enchanted Axe felt heavy in his hands because of his heavy heart, but he knew he had to move forward with a sagacious attack against his enemies. He didn't know if he had the will to fight the Tins, but at the same time, he didn't have the will to let them live for what they had done.

"Ptah replaced the Irons with the Tins in the hopes they'd be loyal to him," said Cast. He was in the process of fixing some of the old, laser rifles that Ku had in his possession. "My ancestors helped Ptah build the Neuronet as a means to document all life in the old universe, but they wanted more."

"What happened to it?" Ku asked. The other Munchkins huddled around the massive man of iron and listened to his story.

"The Guardians made an alliance with the Tins because they had the technology on how to build a replica of the Neuronet, but with grave consequences. The Guardians wanted to take Ptah's control away, and be able to bring new races into existence without his say so."

Immediately, Ku rose to his feet, and said, "That's not good. It would create an abomination, an out-of-control machine that would document and destroy with no control."

"That's true," he said, "The Guardians are calling the new entity Brainiac, a lifeforce with the ability to wipe out the flesh without the orders of the gods. They've sent this new lifeform to the edges of the galaxy so it wouldn't document and destroy Oa. But know this, the Irons never wanted the Neuronet. We wanted our old world back."

"I see. So, Ptah sent the Tins into the Speed Force for their betrayal?" Said Ku.

"And the Irons too because we tried to undo the collapsing of the old verse," he said, "The wrath of Ptah is reverberating throughout the galaxy now. He's looking for retribution because of what his children did to the Great Mother, Orion, and the Neuronet."

Ku sat back down on the ground in front of his stack of weapons, and even though he didn't agree with Cast's feelings about Ptah, he knew he'd have to face the Tins soon because they were imprisoning the Trilobites and killed his beloved, Po'Aga. Since Cast was once a Lantern, the old Munchkin tapped into his knowledge about military strategy and they formed into teams of seven to enter the Tin's campsite and kill them without remorse. He examined his Munchkin soldiers' faces, their eyes narrowed by anger, but large and green, the creases in their foreheads prominent.

"The Trilobites have never accepted my progeny," Ku said to Cast, "But at the same time, we are of the Trilobites. There might be animosity between us, but when an outside force messes with them, they mess with us."

Under the three moons of Ozarrio, Ku and his band of Munchkins and the one, otherworld, iron giant, descended on the Tin's encampment in groups of seven. Ku's group moved into the area first, and when he looked through his binoculars, he thought he saw Po'Aga tied up on the northern side of the campsite. Her hands were badly bruised and dripping with green, Trilobite blood. He felt the joy that she was still alive, but at the same time, he felt anger for the fact she was injured. It looked like she had been fighting by the bruises on her fists. First, he sent Cast into the enemy territory while he covered him, and prepared to shoot any Tin that moved toward his position.

As soon as Cast feet stepped onto the Tin's encampment, an alarm sounded and all the enemy forces descended on the area. When they went to apprehend the iron giant, Ku and his men unleashed a barrage of laser fire on them. When his laser fire hit the Tins, it barely had an effect on them, and that let him know he was going to have a hard time. Out of rage and fear, Ku leaped up from his position and charged the encampment with his Enchanted Ax high above his head. Several of the Tins fired at him rapidly, but the power of the ax deflected each laser shot. But when he touched the fence as he tried to open the gate, an electrical current threw him off his feet and he moaned loudly on the ground. In the distance, his betroth screamed for him, and it was because of her screams that forced him back to his feet. Disoriented, he lumbered through the fence barely holding on to his ax and stood face to face with the Tins. Cast walked over to him and helped him stand upright.

"Let my people go!" Said Ku as he could barely focus on the tin men standing in front of him. "I'm Ku Klip, one of the leaders in this community."

The main leader of the tin men stepped forward, and then said, "I'm General Lockalloy, the leader of this band of Tins, and we're the new rulers of this world."

Ku couldn't believe the metal man's hubris, and now that his vertigo passed, he said, "But you aren't the leader of Ozarrio. This is the world Orion gave the Trilobites to rule." He kept a serious visage and didn't flinch one time in front of General Lockalloy. "Have your men stand down, General, and leave this land!"

When Ku stood directly in front of the tin man, it wasn't an even match because he stood less than five feet tall, but when it came to the metal man, he stood over seven feet tall. And when Ku made demands of the General, all the Tins laughed loudly in the face of the oldest Trilobite in the history of that race. Gripping his ax with all his might, he threw it at the General, and it went through his chest, killing him in an instance. The ax cut through him like nothing was there to stop it, and it flew into a tree on the other side of the field. All the other Tins raced to their General's side when he fell to the ground, and then Ku said, "Return to me!" The ax flew through the air, and he caught it with his right hand. "You!" He pointed to one of the Tins as he wept over his commanding officer. "Free my people!" He ordered. "But first, you're going to free my betroth." Pointing to Po'Aga with the handle of the ax, the tin man bolted over to his fiance and took her chains off. "When you're done freeing my people, you'll find a home in the south of Ozarrio and build, but you're never to step foot on my territory again."

Five Years Later:

Ku Klip truly loved Po'Aga, and due to Ptah's blood flowing through her veins, he considered his first child with her royalty and of the highest quality, but at the same time, he despised the fact that he was the Klip, the cursed one. Therefore, he looked at his wife, and said, "The Enchanted Ax belongs to the bloodline of Ptah. It's an ax meant to chop away the evil."

"Will our boy have a name different from yours?" Po'Aga asked with a grimace on her face.

"Indeed," he said with a soft smile. "He'll be known as Ko'Va Chopper. All the Kings throughout time will be handed the Enchanted Ax and rule the land with kindness and fairness."

She began to weep, and then said, "I'm saddened your name isn't one we can give our children." Leaning up against him, she rested her head on his right shoulder.

"I'm the cursed one. I'm the Klip, and no matter where I go in this life, people will know I'm cursed." Ku reached into his son's crib and then said, "You'll have the lifespan of five hundred years, and then you'll die, but you'll have plenty of children in the process. I shall always protect the Chopper bloodline for all eternity."

Meanwhile on Oa…

The Neonodes, a race of beings formed from the kinetic energy between Ptah and Dora, had their fleet orbiting Oa, and they were ready for battle. Their Battle Cruisers were the fastest in the galaxy because they moved at warp three, and the only ship that moved faster than that was the Phantom, Ptah's main vessel. The Neonodes were a race of telepaths who Ptah always protected because they were born from his energy. They were green in skin color with orange hair and had the ability to enter into the minds of other beings to manipulate them.

Upon hearing the news of Oa attacking the Celestial Kingdom, the Neonodes raced to Oa to ensure Ptah was victorious in the war because the Neuronet was paramount to the stability in the verse. The Commander of the Neonode Fleet was Admiral Poralis, a Neonode with a background in warfare. It took nearly four years for the green beings to traverse the stars, and the only way they were able to arrive at Oa so fast was due to wormhole mapping.

General Poralis was a buff Neonode, a highly decorated officer on the planet, Neo Star. He had a chiseled jawline with thick, orange eyebrows and the ability to wield a laser rifle like no other Neonode. He kept his hair short in the front and long in the back and kept a knife strapped to his right boot. He sat on the bridge while drinking a cup of tea and watching the erratic behavior of the Manbots.

"Shields up!" General Poralis ordered as he talked to his fleet through radio communication. "Keep an eye on the Manbots because they keep forming into attack patterns and then dispersing." The robots would form up in a v-shape formation and then race toward the upper atmosphere of Oa, and then tumble back to the planet. It was if they were doing some kind of practice run.

"Sir, we have the Phantom on the radar," one of the other bridge officers said, "She's racing toward our position."

"See if you can contact the ship?" The Commander asked. He stood up in his Command Chair when he heard Ptah's voice in his head.

"Move your forces back!" The voice in his head exclaimed. "The Oans have a powerful, positronic weapon that can wipe out your fleet! They're about to fire on you!"

"Retreat!" The Commander screamed in the intercom. Suddenly a laser blast that came from the surface tore into several of the ships killing all the Neonodes onboard, but the lead vessel only received minor damage. "Fire!" He exclaimed. All the remaining ships fired upon The Tower of the Guardians, but the force shield protected it.

When the ships tried to regroup, a fleet of Manbots attacked their weapon systems and destroyed their abilities to fire upon The Tower of the Guardians. As they began to tear at the hull of the lead ship, the Phantom arrived on the scene and destroyed most of the Manbots with its own brand of positronic weaponry. It hit the robots with a panoramic ray that turned their bodies into debris.

Ptah and Oriona exited the Phantom with their weapons: The Hammer of Knowledge and the Ax of Death, and then they descended down to the large tower, The Tower of the Guardians. Their black wings extended past their bodies, and they looked like predator birds of old. The Admiral watched the gods descend to the tower, and then a series of laser fire tried to hit them, but they used their weapons as shields to block the deadly lights. When the Manbots tried to circle them, Ptah waived his right hand, and they all broke into scraps of metal.

Admiral Poralis landed on the platform leading into the tower, and on his right hip, he removed his weapon. The entranceway that Ptah and his wife went through was paved with gold and had two dragons on either side of it. He realized immediately that he made a mistake following the god Ptah and his wife into the Citadel when a Manbot swooped in behind him, and then knocked him to the ground. It happened so fast that he hardly had time to prepare himself for the fall. Several other robots flew into the fortress, and he knew his flimsy weapon wouldn't handle them all, but he fired it anyway. They flew right past him as the laser barely made a mark on their metal frames, but the other robot still had its eyes on the General. After a few seconds, the robot came around again, and as soon as it went to attack him, an ax flew through the air and sliced it in half. Crude oil went all of the General's face, and he had to cover his mouth and eyes so he wouldn't get any of the fluid in them.

Ptah walked up to the General, and then said, "You need to leave." Suddenly two other Manbots came out of the shadows, and then Oriona sliced them into pieces with her ax, and then it flew back into her right hand. "You need temporal steel to cut through their metal," she said.

He nodded toward Oriona, and then said, "But, Lord, I want to make sure you're victorious in getting back the Neuronet." Rising to his feet, he brushed off his pants, and then said, "The Neuronet has the codexes for all life in the universe. It's dangerous for all life to have that machine in the wrong hands."

The god shook his head in disbelief at the General's words and then held out his right fist to the Neonode. When he opened it, a yellow power ring fell into his hand. "You will become the second being to hold the power of the yellow, Lantern ring. I give it to you for your bravery and wisdom."

"What's this?" He asked as he admired the beauty of the ring. "Will I be a god?"

"It's a weapon to stand toe to toe with the gods, but you will not be a god," he said, "It will instill fear in your enemies. It will suit you well because you have a strong mind and bravery in your heart."

The General placed the ring on his right index finger, but nothing happened immediately. "I don't feel any differently," he said as he looked at the golden ring on his right hand. But when they descended down the hallway, a golden glow encompassed his entire body, and then he donned a yellow Lantern suit. The transformation didn't seem to bother the gods, and as he changed into the Yellow Lantern, Ptah didn't look back at the General.

Upon entering into the main room on the top floor, a red flash of light raced across the room, and then Ptah reached out his right hand, and then the light raced toward it. When he flicked his wrist, Hermes appeared in the god's grasp. "I should break your neck for your betrayal, son."

All of a sudden, Hermes kicked Ptah in the chest, broke free of his grip, and then fired a lightning bolt at the god, but a yellow shield that emanated from the General's ring blocked it. "You're the bad guy in this," Hermes screamed. "You took everything from me."

"Did I not give you all your gifts?" Ptah asked with a grimace. "You had my love for you were my first."

"Let me cut off his head?" Oriona said as she lifted the Ax of Death to his face. "He forever scarred the House of La, and should pay the ultimate price."

"No!" Ptah exclaimed. He lifted up his ring hand and the black ring on his right index finger sparkled. It opened up a black hole, and then when Hermes tried to run again, it scooped him up inside of it. His atoms began to disperse until they all ended up inside of the black hole.

"What happened?" General Poralis asked.

"He's in the Speed Force now," he said in a brittle voice. Oriona had a hard time showing affection for a husband for reasons the General didn't know. She looked uneasy for a moment and then swallowed.

"There, there," she said in a cold manner. "It had to be done."

A tear fell down Ptah's left cheek because he felt some pain in his heart for banishing his first son to the Speed Force. "For twenty thousand years, he will reside in the Speed Force imprisoned for his betrayal against the La family. Now, I want my Neuronet."

Current time:

Westward, therefore, lay the Enchanted Ax in Winkie Land, the place where the Tin Man's castle set. In the distance, near the edge of the Munchkin Country, and next to Gillican Country was a gaggle of winged monkeys watching them with their beady little eyes. The monkeys lived in an area of Oz with purple vegetation, and in addition to that, some large mountains stood to the north. The monkeys lived in the southern portion of Gillican Country and fed off red berries and exotic, blue grapes.

The unicorns in the north were a brownish color while the ones in Munchkin Country were white. The horns had a thick, brown covering that protected them. According to Tavi, the brown unicorns' horns had supernatural properties.

"Legend has it that Ptah sent his unicorns here to protect them from a plague," Tavi said, "It was a plague that wiped out most of the unicorns in the universe." He laughed for a moment, and then said, "It's only a legend."

James-with his super-hearing-could hear the monkeys breathing loudly; it sounded like they struggled with every breath, but it was just the nature of the beast. They had two, strong wings on top of their shoulders, but they didn't fly anymore because of the acid-filled locusts patrolling the skies. But when they walked past the monkeys, an apparent sadness set on their visage and it was obvious they longed to soar in the blue sky.

"I feel almost sorry for those creatures," Tavi said, "They once blackened the sky, but now they just stand around hoping to spread their wings one time before nature takes them away." There must have been several hundred monkeys standing around.

James stopped walking for a moment, and then said, "Maybe if we're victorious against the Tin Man, the locusts will find another sky to patrol and leave this area."

"A balloon ride across Oz would be romantic," he said, "But there isn't anybody who strikes my fancy. It doesn't matter. I'd like to see a free Oz."

When James looked over at one of the younger, winged monkeys, it took off high into the sky and the other monkeys screamed for his return. James looked at the winged simian soar, and before it reached one hundred feet, the locusts charged for the creature. Immediately, James took off after the winged animal and locked on to it. As one of the beasts charged at the super infused James Olsen, he shot it with his laser eyes and cut it into pieces. He dropped the animal off with his people and they immediately fell in love with the earthling. The monkeys cheered when James landed with the baby winged simian.

"Thank you, sir," one of the monkeys said in a deep, melodious voice. He seemed appreciative of James, but looked around him for a moment at Tavi and winced. "He knew better than to fly up into the sky like that."

"It's okay," he said with a smile, "Once I find the enchanted ax, I will challenge the Tin Man to a dual, and if I'm victorious, I hope to remove all the locusts from the skies."

"It won't be easy," the monkey said. He massaged his chin as he spoke with James and kept his eyes on Tavi. "There Are enemies in every crevice on Oz and the people who are closest to you are the ones you have to be leery of."

After they traveled past the winged monkeys, they came across a small castle about twenty miles away from their previous location. It had a chimney on the south side of the citadel with puffs of smoke emanating from it. The only reason the journey to the fortress took so long was that Tavi couldn't stand James carrying him at a high rate of speed.

James picked Tavi up, carried him about five miles running near two hundred miles per hour, but it made the old man sick. He threw up all over the ground and begged for Ptah to take his life. It was a disgusting sight, so James decided they'd walk through the forest like normal people. It took them nearly a full day to walk the additional fifteen miles to the small castle, and according to Tavi, they had to walk through the Baron's land because it was too far to walk around it.

The wizard's property was decked out in silver and gold, and from what James could tell, the man had plenty of money. He tried to walk through his property without making any noise, but it didn't happen that way. Suddenly, he heard some footsteps running toward him, and then when he turned around, a wolf-like creature smacked him in the face. He hit James with so much force that it knocked him about twenty feet backward. From the supine position, James flew into the air, struck the wolf-like creature with a right cross, killing it instantly. He hit the beast with so much force that it removed its head and it rolled across the purple ground.

He looked the creature over for a moment and its dog tag fell on the ground near James' left foot. It read, "Property of Wizard John."

"Wizard John? Who's that?" James asked as he looked over the headless creature.

"Just a local Baron who controls these parts," he said, "We best keep moving because Wizard John is extremely powerful."

When James and Tavi walked directly in front of the castle, he noticed a puff of white smoke turn into a stream of black smoke that squirmed through the air like a black snake through the grass. At first, James didn't know what to make of the show until it was too late. He saw Tavi fall to the ground, and then when he tried to move out of the path of the dangerous chemical, he felt his legs give out.

James awoke a few minutes later and two of the tin men of the castle drug him across the field full of mushrooms. The clinking of their armor drove him mad. He felt the superman formula boiling inside his veins. As the tin men drug his body across the purple grass, he felt rage and hate. Looking around the area, he saw another two men dragging Tavi at the same time; they took them to a mound of junk located on the backside of the castle. Once James found his mental footing he leaped to his feet, ripped the heads off the first two tin men, and then tore their bodies into pieces. His head hurt. At first, he thought it was because of the formula, but he quickly realized it was the smoke. It was like a drug.

The other two tin men charged James as he hammered one of the two metal creatures that drug him with the leg of the other one. The other two tin men threw James into the pile of junk and it all came tumbling on top of his head. Tavi screamed, "James!" For a long moment, the entire area was completely quiet, but James could see the two tin men watching the pile of junk for movement. Suddenly, he leaped out of the heap of garbage, grabbed the first tin man, and beat him to death. He didn't want to kill him, but the rage inside of him was growing, and as far as he could surmise, he didn't have any control over it. The other tin man beat James from behind and he fell to his knees. Quickly, he turned toward the tin man and hit him with an uppercut that completely removed his head.

James ran to help Tavi, but a green-ray hit him from behind, and then he flew into the stockpile of junk. When he looked up, he saw a large Munchkin, a Munchkin about seven foot in height with the robe of a wizard. The poke-a-dots on the robe caused James' vision to blur. He couldn't look at the wizard because it hurt his eyes. "What are you doing to me?" James asked as he knelt down on one knee. "My eyes are burning." James wanted to grab a board with a nail in it and slam it into the wizard's face, but he didn't see anything.

"I'm the Baron," he said with a grimace. "The people of these parts call me Wizard John and I run the Casino in Emerald City." He waddled over to Tavi and grabbed the back of his shirt with his harry fists and pushed him to the ground. "You owe the wizard," he said to Tavi, "You owe me two-thousand bits."

"You're the Tin Man's lackey," Tavi said with a scowl on his face. Wizard John struck him repeatedly in the mouth, and then said, "You had a chance to pay what you owe."

"Please, Wizard John? Give me another chance?" Tavi asked as the blood dribbled off his brown lips. "Am I not good for it?"

James listened to what the Wizard John said to Tavi, but didn't have the ability to look at the man. He didn't quite understand why his clothing prevented him from looking at him so he pulled off his shirt, wrapped it around his head, and then stood to his feet. He felt revitalized once the wizard's clothing wasn't causing him a distraction. He charged Wizard John and struck the man in the chest; he flew backward on the ground screaming and hollering, and then as James tried to see what was happening, Tavi shoved a steel rod into Wizard John's head. It killed him instantly.

James pulled the shirt off his eyes and watched Wizard John slowly shrivel up into what looked like an old, dried up piece of wood. Tavi stumbled backward, dusted off his pants, and then he said, "Look? The reaping is happening." Looking down at the dead wizard's body, he saw the vegetation dying around him and it began to spread. "It'll consume the entire property, but if the dying touches you, it'll eat your soul."

The duo ran to the edge of the property by the time the dying consumed the castle; it swallowed it whole and then the reaping stopped. The mansion was the source of Wizard John's powers, and then when he died, the castle dissolved into the mystical world. Right outside the castle's gate set the old, beat-up truck that hauled away Tavi's possessions. On the side of the truck was a sign that read, "W. J."

"This was the man that took your stuff?" James asked with a scowl on his face.

"Who knew?" He said with a smile. "I'm finally free from his reach."

James walked along the street, mind sharpened and hands ready, fearful that Tavi had another agenda on the arduous journey. He thought the Scarecrow's beginnings were strange, his methods, and his attitudes about life. No matter what, he didn't have it in him to trust the odd character. He was strange. The thought of the old man betraying him played in his mind, all day and all night long.

Night had come quickly, much quicker than he had hoped, and even though the three moons gave off a bountiful glow, he needed his rest. They set up a camp in the middle of a nice field about five miles from Wizard John's property. The unicorns trotted through the area like the men weren't plotting to kill one for food, but it was how people lived in Oz; they ate unicorn meat like people on Earth ate cows, and James immediately developed a taste for the sacred beast of mythical mythology. Pulling off his shirt, his muscles glistened under the three moons of Oz, and using his super sight, he watched the unicorns as they frolicked in the distance. It only took him half a second to capture one of the innocent beasts and bring it back to the campsite. Stringing it up on an old oak tree, he cleaned the animal at a rapid speed and then cooked it rotisserie-style over a nice open flame. It only took a little over an hour to cook the unicorn flesh, and they enjoyed eating and laughing around the campfire like old buddies.

After James and Tavi ate the unicorn flesh, a mystical mist crept into the area. It happened a few minutes after he discarded the uneaten flesh. At first, he didn't notice the mist falling until it was too late. It tumbled into the area like a dense fog, and when he tried to hold his breath, he looked over at Tavi and he had already fallen asleep; but when he hopped to his feet to run away, his legs felt like heavyweights and he fell to the ground. His body hit hard against the soft ground and it sounded like a sack of potatoes. Trying to fight the effects of the mist was useless; he was already asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Hermes: Enter The Speedforce

(Chapter 12 Preface)

Hermes landed in a smoky creek of bloody water on a jungle-like planet called Joralasis. He hit hard and the splash from his fall would have been deadly to a lesser being, but since he was a god, the son of the mighty Ptah, it barely caused a dent in him. The wind blew quietly in the blackened background, and even though it was daylight, the thick, tenebrous clouds concealed the sun; it barely shone at all.

The smell of rotten flesh encroached on his senses-causing him to retch in the middle of the dirty water. He could hear some kind of animal running through the thick foliage, but couldn't make out what kind of beast it might have been. "Oh, Lord. What did I do to deserve the curse of this place?" He asked under his bated breath. The sound of some kind of animal screaming caused fear in his heart, and even though he had great powers, he wasn't used to the darkness. The blood-sucking bugs annoyed him, but didn't have the ability to penetrate his godlike skin; thy buzzed around his head causing him to swat at them randomly. He just watched the blackness, and when his eyes panned across the immediate area, he saw the orange eyes, the eyes of a predator looking upon its prey.

Suddenly, the glowing eyes disappeared in front of Hermes' eyes, and he looked in all directions to see if he could spot the predator. Something hit the water, a splash, and when he heard the creature swimming toward him, he froze. He could feel the creature's scales rubbing violently against his right leg. Just the feel of its touch made him squirm. But when he tried to escape the murky creek, the monster grabbed him by the right leg, holding on with all its strength. Struggling, he tried to break free from the creature's tenacious grip, but couldn't. He vibrated at supersonic speed forcing the monster to let go of his leg. Quickly, he darted across the pond at superspeed, and came out safe on the other side, but then out of nowhere, a silver blade cut through the night air. It grazed by Hermes' face, barely missing him. Breathing loudly, he fell face-first on the mushy ground, and when he looked at his right leg, he saw burn marks on it from the fiery grip of the creature.

"I'm the god Hermes," he said loudly. Breathing heavily, he then said, "I'm the first son of Ptah." For some reason, he thought explaining to the creature that his father was Ptah that it would save him from the slaughter. "I'm the messenger to the gods."

"I don't care," the strained voice said from the dirty creek. He could tell the voice was a female of its species by the flow and pitch. "Isn't Ptah the reason we're all here in this prison, Hermes?" He tried to make out the creature's form as it rose up from the bush, and when it stood erect, he could barely make out its form because of its blackness. But at the same time, he thought he recognized the voice, and he wanted to know more. "This prison was specifically made to hold you. You!" The creature pointed at him, and then said, "For your betrayal against Ptah."

"Who are you?" He asked with a serious countenance. "Why do I feel I know you?" Cautiously, he made an effort to back out of the murky water while facing the creature, but as soon as his feet stepped on the cold ground, he felt the creature inside of his mind.

"I am Rogue," she said aloud, "Enslaved by Ptah to be his paramour, but I escaped. Now, I'm a god within this world."

He fell to one knee, held on to his head, and tried to push her out of his mind, "How are you doing this? Get out of my head!" He said as he struggled with her mental grip. Looking over his left shoulder, he saw a large, loose rock that he reached for with his mental powers, and then threw it at the creature. When the bolder hit Rogue in the chest, it broke the mental restraint she had on him. Quickly, he ran across the marshes away from the creature's mind; and as he glided across the water he came upon a city of huts.

There were rows of huts about twenty across and ten deep, but only a few inhabitants were roaming through the village. He stood on the fringes of the primitive society watching the orange creatures as they appeared to stand guard. From what he could tell, the creatures resembled the Orcrenians, a race of beings from the Old Verse. They grew in height from anywhere between sixty to seventy-five inches, and from what Hermes remembered about them, they were a peaceful people.

All of a sudden, he heard a horn blaring that came from the village and then the flapping of wings over his head. When he looked up into the blackened sky, he saw Rogue and her wings had a span of nearly sixty feet, and even in the night sky, he could tell it was her, the creature that Ptah loved. It swooped down into the village, grabbing one of the Orcrenians as it screamed and cried to be let go, and then it departed with the poor soul just as quickly as it came. Subsequently, the entire village exited their huts, fell to the ground, and all he could hear were their entries for the poor victim, the lost soul.

He knew Rogue when she was merely a Trilobite and Ptah's lover, but now he realized the radiation in the Speed Force changed her on a molecular level and she wasn't the same person. Also, he knew that Orion's mind helped guide the creature, but it had changed on some level, diverging from its normal path. Through the years, he had seen many iterations of Orion's mind in different creatures, and they all fought for the betterment of the Celestial Kingdom. But when it came to Rogue, she didn't seem to care.

Out of concern, he raced back to the marshes and looked into every corner of the watery grave until he found Rogue about to devour her meal. The marshes smelled like rotting flesh and he could barely take it. Covering his nose, he watched the creature as it stood over her prey.

"You've returned?" She asked as she turned and looked directly at Hermes. "It's not like you to play the hero."

"What are you going to do to that man?" He asked in a somber manner.

"It's my food," she said smiling, "No male creature can escape my siren spell. Not even you."

"What do you mean?" He asked with a grimace.

When she raised her right hand toward Hermes, he could see himself walking to her, but didn't want to. Pulling out a knife, she held it to the god's throat, and he lifted his chin for her to cut his neck. But this wasn't under his own willpower, but hers, and she had complete control over his every move, but not his thoughts. He then reached up, grabbed the knife, and then looked down at the struggling, orange man on the ground. No matter how hard he resisted her, his limbs did her bidding while his mind rebelled against her every whim.

"Prepare my meal," she ordered.

With the power of his godlike mind, he instructed the vines from the trees to attach on to the orange creature's legs, hoist him up, and then he would gut it for Rogue's meal. As he began to cut into the flesh, the sound of the blade slicing into the meat made him sick. The smell of the man's innards was more than he could take, and it caused him to projectile vomit on to the dead man's body. It's guts fell into the water making a plopping noise as he continued to mutilate the flesh. But at the same time, Hermes cried, but couldn't stop doing what Rogue ordered him to do. "This is not right!" Hermes exclaimed as Rogue watched him.

"Here, I am god," she said with a lovely smile, "And you will be my food gatherer for all time."

Current time...

JJ, Orion, Vera, Peppermint, and Veo worked on different things while in the large warehouse. He placed a gym on the south half of the warehouse with weights, a punching bag, and several machines, and it was all for Vera's athletic upkeep. Peppermint watched television with JJ Junior sitting on her lap. Vera and Veo practiced fighting techniques on the south end of the warehouse; he made her a hologram that she could practice fighting and improving her skills. When she fell to the ground, JJ screamed, "Veo! Be easy with her, okay?"

"Okay," he said as he changed the hologram from a six-foot soldier to a little school girl. The holographic image started shuffling around Vera, and she looked at it for a moment with crooked eyes. JJ looked over at them and shook his head in disagreement. He didn't like Veo taunting Vera because she had some bottled up issues that were never addressed. Even though he used his medical device to heal her, she still carried some baggage of being born different.

"That's not funny, Veo," She said as she clenched her fist to the taunting image of the little school girl. "Stop it! JJ?"

"Veo? Quit antagonizing Vera!" He screamed across the floor, "You know better than that."

"Hold your voice down, JJ?" Peppermint screamed.

Vera stood toe to toe with a holographic schoolgirl calling her a weakling. Instead of Veo calling her names, the hologram itself started teasing her to make her fight harder. When she folded her arms like she was going to give up because of the constant ribbing, the hologram threw her to the floor, and then she flipped back on to her feet and kicked the hologram into the wall. "Take that, asshole."

JJ looked over at the fighting duo he called Victory and tried not to pay any attention to their shenanigans and grimaced. His box of orbs set next to his right leg as he did the last configurations to the black box that would eventually open a portal between Oz and Earth. Earlier, he examined each orb and designed them with old-world technology from the Celestial Kingdom. The small balls had a circumference of twelve inches and were four point-five inches in diameter. They weighed approximately two hundred pounds apiece and had the ability to travel over mach nine miles per hour.

Nearly one million years earlier-during the Great War-Ptah used a similar orb on Ganthet's battleship after he killed his firstborn son with Ta La Ra (Oriona) named So-Bra Ra. He sat on a bench working on the box, and JJ could hardly believe that the death of his son was still fresh in his memory. During the time of his child's death, he had a telepathic tether to him, and he watched his second son with the Great Mother kill his first son with Ta La Ra. At the time of his death, So-Bra Ra was only six hundred thousand years old, a baby, and the father of the Thanagarians. It broke Ptah's heart to witness Ganthet shoot So-Bra Ra with an Omega ray from his Lantern ring. It killed him on the spot, wiping him out completely. In a moment of rage, Ptah unleashed the Orb of Destruction on Ganthet's fleet of ships, decimating them all and killing thousands of Oans. It was one of the darkest days in the Great War.

Orion used a ray similar to a tractor beam, picked up the device they built to communicate with James in the Speed Force, and set it on the front workbench. It was in a wooden case with a tube that protruded out of it. That tube shot a ray that opened a hole into the Speed Force and allowed JJ to communicate with James. In the rear of the box was a digital viewing screen. Once they situated the box on the desk exactly the way they wanted it, JJ pulled out his laptop, connected it to the box, and was able to key in on different locations with the touch of a button.

Orion set on JJ's right shoulder, and then said, "The code to Oz is 72518932." He placed his hands on either side of the box while he viewed the screen.

"You're certain he's in Oz, aren't you?" He said as he punched in the code to the remote location. "The screen is somewhat grainy, but I have a good view of Oz. I'm about two hundred miles above the planet right now."

"It's a start," she said, "If you had reached the pinnacle of your existence, you'd be able to appear in the Speed Force unscathed." He looked back at Peppermint as she slept on the couch with the baby asleep on her chest.

"I know," he said. He flipped the switch on the box and situated the tube to face the far wall. He punched the code into the computer, and then guided the laser around until Oz came on his view screen and a portal opened between the two worlds.

"This is dangerous," Orion said as she rested on JJ's right shoulder. "You'll have to send in one of the spheres to alleviate some of the stress on the machine."

JJ picked up one of the small spheres and threw it into the portal between the two universes and it traveled to Oz, entering the world approximately two hundred miles above the planet. It made a buzzing sound as it took off through the opening in the universe that the box controlled. He expected the sphere to do most of the heavy lifting when it came to communicating with James, and alleviating most of the pressure on the delicate machine. "I might be able to physically enter the Speed Force if I can change my harmonics."

"It's possible," she said as she stayed focused on the screen. "But let the sphere do its job before you try that." For a long moment, she didn't say anything, but JJ continued to fiddle with the keyboard. "Oz is such a beautiful place," she said quietly as the sphere moved into the atmosphere of the planet.

"It truly is," he said with a scowl on his face. He continued to enter commands into the keyboard, but the sphere didn't respond once he approached the surface. "I do think James is in Oz, but for some reason, I'm struggling to keep the sphere on course." He paused for a moment and then asked, "I'm getting a lot of interference between the computer and the Orb."

"The portal is still open and clear of debris," Orion said, "But it appears something is in the way of the lenses on the orb. Try to open up the panoramic view and let's see what we can see?"

He punched in several more commands, and then said, "A visual is coming up now."

"What is that?" She asked as several large bugs flapped their wings in front of the orb's cameras. "Oh, Shit! That's a Corrigan Fire Locust. The sky is swarming with them."

"I remember those things," he said with a grimace, "These locusts are usually found on Demonica where the fire dragons live. The dragons feed off those things and that keeps their numbers under control. They don't usually fly below fifty feet."

"You remember!" She said, "Take the sphere down below fifty feet. Those damn locusts will try to spray the orb with their acid spit. Without a fire dragon, the locusts will dominate the sky. That's for sure."

"Dammit!" He screamed, "That one locust nearly hit the orb with its spit."

"Can you two keep it down?" Peppermint asked as she tried to sleep on the couch. When JJ looked back at her, he noticed Vera was sleeping in the far corner of the room with her feet on the wall and Veo was next to her on the floor.

"I'm approximately twenty-five feet above the ground," he said, "That should be a safe distance."

"Okay," she said, "Put in the search criteria and let's see this orb do its job."

"Will do," he said as he scanned an image of James into the system. "I'm going to have the orb search Oz using facial recognition software."

"This particular orb can move nearly mach nine," Orion said, "It's archaic tech, but we can't risk polluting this world with our advanced knowledge of space and time."

"Is that bluegrass?" JJ asked as he watched the screen.

"It appears to be," she said, "Ozario has several different colors of grass. The Trilobites arrived on this world during the time you married Oriona and gave life to the Thanagarians."

JJ smiled, and said, "And my children named me Vulcan, God of the Celestial Plane. Oriona was called Ta La Ra and my first child with her was So-Bra Ra." He looked at the screen for a second, and then said, "It found James."

"Who's that woman on top of him?" Orion asked. "Looks like we landed into an orgy."

"She resembles a Torillian," he said, "But she's not hairy like a Torillian."

"JJ, honestly, you've been out of network for two hundred thousand years," Orion snapped, "That's what the Torillians look like now."

"But Vega Star is still Vega Star, right?" He asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Look? She's getting up." She paused for a moment and then said, "Look at the markings on her left shoulder?"

"It reads, 'Origra ove aga,'" he said softly, "Speed Criminal in the ancient tongue of the Speed Council on Moxia."

"That's exactly right," Orion said, "Eli Ga'Narian patrols Moxian space and might have nabbed her manipulating time. It's unfortunate she has already left with Jon Stewart for Oa. "

I don't think James is awake," he said calmly. "She's running into the forest."

"Yeah. He's just lying there and so is his friend," JJ said, "I'm going to scan him to see why he isn't awake." The orb hit James with a ray that scanned his entire body. "Looks like he has a narcotizing agent in his system."

"Can you wake him?" Orion asked. "I know the orb doesn't have an infinite battery life so we need to tell him he has a few more days inside the Speed Force before it releases him."

"It looks like we have about ten minutes of power left according to the sensor," he said with a grimace. "Sheesh! We can make better equipment than this, Orion."

"We have to work with the material we have on hand, JJ," she said, "It is what it is. We can send in another orb at a later time, but we need James to know that we're working on getting him home."

"I'm putting a message in the orb telling him he has four days left inside the Speed Force," he said, "I'll place the orb in that bag and it'll turn on in six hours."

"Good plan," she said.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

(Oz) April 10, 1904…

The Tin Man stood in the middle of Winkie Country, a portion of Oz where metal ruled. His limbs were made of a special kind of iron that did rust at the time. He kept a bottle of oil with him everywhere he traveled so he'd never rust like he did before Dorothy, an Earth girl, rescued him in the amusement park. The people of the land loved the Tin Man because he helped eradicate the evil Wizard of Oz who did the bare minimum for the land. Unfortunately, he wasn't tin like the people who put him in power and there was always the tin men who despised the iron man who claimed to be tin. He stood on a plot of land where his future kingdom would set, and he loved the idea of ruling the metal people graciously. He wanted the Tins and the Irons to come together and make steel, but he also sensed the war between the two metals would destroy his kingdom.

In those days, Tavi stood by the Tin Man's side as he ruled over the Tin people with a gracious hand and a sagacious mind. With his body made of ragged clothing and hay, he often feared the vicious crows of Winkie Country would make nesting out of his magical innards of straw. Often, he conveyed to the Tin Man that he had to be mindful of the crows for they would steal the herbage that made up his body. But when it came to his position within the Tin Man's kingdom, Tavi played an essential role, a role where he could speak directly to the Tin Man.

In spite of all the pain he endured over the years from the Munchkins, he didn't carry any hate for them, or the Scarecrow they built who now called himself Tavi Socrates, the smartest being in all of Oz. He used Tavi on different projects, including the design of his castle. When he came to his old friend, the Scarecrow, he said, "Tavi, I want to make a strong, beautiful kingdom that all of Oz can appreciate. Can you design it for me?"

Tavi smiled, looked at the beautiful land in Winkie Country, and said, "I'll make you the best damn kingdom in all of Oz that even Ptah himself would be envious of."

The Tin Man laughed, and said, "I would love a kingdom that would make the creator of this world envious." He smiled for a moment, and then said, "I will select the best Tins and Irons to work with you on this project and I bet we can have it completed in a year."

"That will be fantastic," he said, "We'll make a kingdom that people will travel from around the world to visit. Maybe even Dorothy will return." He had a gleam in his eyes and a smile on his face, but the Tin Man knew it was unlikely she'd ever return.

"Oh, Tavi," the Tin Man lamented, "You must forget about Dorothy. She's home now, away from the madness of Oz. What kind of relationship could a girl of flesh have with a man of straw?"

Tavi laughed, but the Tin Man knew immediately it wasn't a genuine laugh. He sensed the man of straw straining with his smile but didn't say anything about it verbally. "Anything's possible with the right magic, Nick," he said with a stern look on his face. "We have the greatest magic in the universe right here in Winkie Country. Surely, one of the witches in all of Oz has the power to make me flesh." He had a lot of stress in his voice when he said the last part of the statement. And then in conclusion to the subject matter, he said, "Being flesh is worth all the money, friends, and peace in the world to me. It's what I dream about the most."

The Tin Man laughed, and then said, "When I lost my limbs, it was the greatest loss of my life." He patted the Scarecrow on the left shoulder, and then said, "I would love to be flesh again, but I wouldn't give up my friends for it or my peace of mind."

When Tavi made those remarks to him, he didn't truly grasp what he was actually saying. He thought the Scarecrow's rants were nothing more than a friend venting with no real substance behind them. The Tin Man, in spite of all the betrayal by his people, had a good heart. He trusted Tavi because of the struggle they endured; it made them brothers in his mind. He also missed Dorothy because he considered her his sister and loved her in strictly a platonic sense. He wondered briefly, his thoughts tumbling back some twenty-two years earlier when he loved Mary. He remembered how she always smelled like fresh peaches, and when it came to the compulsory, evening dinner, she always gave him a little extra.

Tavi's team of builders, the Tins and the Irons, erected the Tin Man's castle in Winkie Country and the magnificent castle stood proudly for all the people to see. The yellow daffodils grew wild on the fringes of the property, and when the Tin Man saw them, he knew his kingdom needed a queen. In the center of his iron fortress, a batch of booshi trees grew that supplied his dominion with fresh wine. Daily, servants picked the small, round fruit off the trees and made spirits for the kingdom that they consumed them for their compulsory, evening meal. And as he sat at the head of the table at the evening meal, he looked out at all the women throughout his fiefdom, and even though he thought their silvery beauty was a blessing from Ptah, he wanted a queen of flesh and bone. He knew his iron hands against her skin would be too rough. He knew she would be uncomfortable if she laid her head against his iron chest. He even knew his iron body on top of her flesh would be too heavy. But even though he knew his queen would struggle with his abnormalities, he found solace in knowing he had a fleshy phallus that could please her like no other because it was bolstered by the power of iron.

(OZ) May 16, 1907…

The private hallway leading to the Tin Man's personal chamber was empty like a wide field, but a picture set on the north wall of a little girl playing in a meadow of daffodils. The floor shone because it was made of black marble from the Munchkin Country. The Tin Man, however, stood in the hallway atop his silver hoverboard with Tavi, the Scarecrow. The hoverboard was a majestic piece of equipment that traveled at mach two and was a product that the kingdom took pride in building.

Nick feared after word traveled throughout all the land that the witches would infiltrate his kingdom. He tried to shove his feelings of mistrust down into his iron stomach but it was hard. On the surface, the kingdom ran without a glitch, but behind the scene and solely inside the Tin Man's head, he had reservations about the covens. He looked at Tavi, Scarecrow, in his straw-like face, and asked, "Have you heard from the witches? Have they made plans against me?"

Tavi stepped off his personal hoverboard, hands behind his back, and said, "The land is beautiful. The people are fed. The Irons are oiled. Everybody has received a smidgen of wealth except for the Tins. It's the Tins who are massing an army against you, brother."

"The Tins?" He asked as he stood on his hoverboard. "Have we not made this kingdom so the Tins and the Irons can live in harmony?"

"That may be true, but the only way to rectify the discord is to marry a woman from the Tin tribe," he said, "If you don't take a Tin as a wife, it'll damage all of Winkie Country."

He listened to his comrade for a moment, but none of it made sense. "If I married a Tin woman then the Irons would wage war. If I married an Ironwoman then the Tins would wage war. If I married a foreigner, then I could bring another kingdom under my control. This is the reason I've sent an invitation of Courtship to the Princess of Oz."

"You sent an IOC to Oz?" He asked with a grimace. "All of the lands will fear you if you acquire that much land and power! You can return to your roots and marry Mary. That would mitigate the fears of outsiders."

He laughed. "She is married, Tavi," he said, "And with children."

"Not anymore," Tavi said, "Her husband died in an accident a year ago. If you marry a poor girl from Munchkin Country, the common man will give you his loyalty. Allow me to make some arrangements for this courtship?"

The Tin Man and Tavi departed; the former, to his chambers; the latter, to make the arrangements he promised. Nick sat in his room for a while, oiled his joints and thought about his days in Munchkin Country. A letter slid underneath his chamber door, across the room, and hit against the wall. He quickly picked it up and it was from Emerald City, a rejection letter. The Princess didn't want anything to do with the Tin Man, and even though he hoped a relationship would bloom with Mary, the rejection cut him deeply because she called him a freak of nature. He set the letter on his bed, walked to the window, and looked out at the daffodils, but their beauty couldn't diminish the pain in his heart. He hated that he felt anger at the Princess of Oz, and from the way she addressed him, she didn't appreciate the fact he practically gave her the throne when he deposed the Wizard.

The fair crept into Munchkin Country and the King of Winkie Country took an entourage to the fair, including Tavi. Normally, the fair lasted two weeks at the most, and it brought wizards, witches, and warlocks with it. When they crossed the border into Munchkin Country, Tavi escorted the Tin Man to the small village where Mary lived. It was a quaint little cottage on the edge of a row of cottages. She had a small, robust tomato garden in front of her home with the reddest tomatoes. The town's people all must've been at the fair because the village seemed empty. When he attempted to knock on her door, he heard her voice.

"Come in, Nick," she said in a cheerful voice. "I've been waiting for you." He looked back at Tavi as he stood in the middle of the roadway and smiled. For the first time in a long time, he thought Mary would finally give in to his wishes. In the back of his mind, he thought she only wanted him now because of his wealth and power, but he didn't really care. His credulity in people was a major downfall.

He stood in the threshold of the door and Mary sat on her bed completely bare. "You're nude?"

She smiled. "I just want you to know your metal doesn't scare me," she said calmly, "In our younger years, I feared the coldness of your iron against my flesh, but now I'm prepared for you. I will give you what you've always wanted from me."

"Your heart?" He asked with a smile on his face.

"And that," she said. She walked over to him, held his right hand and walked him over to the bed. "Can you feel my flesh?"

"I can," he said. The urge to love her overwhelmed him and he threw her down on the bed. Quickly, he removed his garments and had raw, unprotected sex with her. Due to the fact his phallus was of the flesh, he felt the sensation of it. After thirty minutes of brutal, metal against flesh sex, he rolled over on his back, and said, "I haven't loved in twenty-two years." As he traced the outline of her body, she reached underneath the bed. She hung over the side for a few seconds and then laid flat in the bed for a moment.

"Close your eyes, Nick?" She asked.

"For what?" He asked.

"I have a surprise for you," she said.

Nick closed his eyes for a moment. It was awfully quiet in the room, but he could feel Mary as she touched his penis. He thought she was about to perform fellatio on him, but then he felt a sharp pain that caused him to hop up immediately. "What was that?" He heard Mary laugh as she climbed off the bed with his penis in her right hand and the enchanted ax in the left. "What did you do to me?"

Suddenly, Mary turned into the Wicked Witch of the West and Nick couldn't believe what was happening to him. He stumbled out of the cottage and then Tavi took him to get help.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

A week after the Wicked Witch severed Nick's penis, he sat in his castle with an iron phallus in its place. The pain of losing his member was almost unbearable. He mitigated the pain with some healing herbs from one of the resident witches on the lower decks, and about every two hours, she brought the king more medicines.

He lay in his chamber bed without the will to move, thinking about how he'd recover from such a wound. It took him years to learn to live with his iron extremities, but he took solace in knowing his penis was flesh. Unfortunately, he saw himself as a fake, Iron man; therefore, he didn't have any attraction to the women of the Irons or the women of the Tins; he wanted a woman from the Munchkin Country, a woman who was a descendant of the ancient Trilobites who went on a quest for Ro'Dan in the Speed Force nearly two million years earlier. Now, in almost what felt like a blink of an eye, he had to suffer from a metal phallus for the rest of his life. It was cold, uncaring, and dangerous to the women he would choose to have sex with.

The Tins lived in the southern region of Winkie Country and the Irons resided in the northern part. General Franklin Pewter led the Tin Rebellion and was responsible for the killing of the Irons searching for iron ore. When the Tins heard about his injury, they attacked the Irons and slaughtered nearly thirty on the fringes of Winkie Country. The Irons sent foot patrols to hunt for pockets of iron ore along the perimeter of the land in hover cars. The cars had equipment in them that could detect large pockets of Iron underneath the planet, and when they detected a cluster, the Irons sent in large machines and mined it until it was all gone.

But as soon as the news spread about the witch severing Nick's penis, the Tins assumed he was too weak to lead. Just the mere whisper of a lowly witch in Munchkin Country crippling the King of Winkie Country made him look beyond incompetent in the eyes of the Tins. They amassed along the perimeter of Winkie Country, and when they stumbled on the Irons working in the field, they gunned them down with plasma rays, killing them all without remorse.

The news caused the Tin Man a great deal of pain because he knew he had failed as a leader. He wanted to love the Tins as much as he loved the Irons, but he thought maybe his biases were palpable. He loved his nation and it hurt him to see it at war. He was an Iron according to the metal that made up most of his body, but he considered himself a Munchkin in his mind.

Tavi-dressed in a new set of rags-walked into his chamber without knocking and the Tin Man immediately asked, "What gives you the right to just barge into my chambers like that?" He carried a book with him that Nick thought was a book of recipes.

He smiled. "The kingdom is at war, Nick," he said with a mischievous grin on his face. "The witch stole your limbs and now your phallus." The Scarecrow walked over to the bedroom window and opened it. "It smells like ass and oil in here. It's time to let it air out a bit. Don't you think?"

"This is no way to talk to your king, Tavi," he said with a scowl on his face. "I'd never barge into your room and treat you in this manner."

"You're right, old friend," he said as he looked back at Nick. "You let your heart get in the way once again," he said.

"What do you mean?" Nick asked.

"You know what I mean," he said with a grimace. "I knew you'd let your guard down if you thought Mary would come back to you. The Wicked Witch of the West was more than happy to assume Mary's identity."

"You did this? For what? For the last vestiges of my manhood?!" He asked.

Tavi laughed. He walked over to Nick's bed, and then said, "I could care less about your penis." The Scarecrow moved the covers off the King's lower half and Nick lay in the bed completely bare. His steel phallus stood eight inches in the air and he felt somewhat vulnerable because of the effects of the herbs. "Just look at that? It's definitely not an instrument of enjoyment. I can only assume you'd torture to death any woman you use it on." Quickly, Nick pulled the covers back over his member and then Tavi shook his head like he was disappointed. "That bitch took your arms, your legs, and now your phallus. She's taken everything it means to be a Munchkin from you." He laughed insidiously at his old friend, and then asked, "So, you won't mind if I take your soul?"

"My soul? Have you gone mad, Tavi?" He asked with a grimace. "What could you possibly need with my soul?" Tavi walked over to his old friend and strapped his limbs to the bed so he couldn't move. It made an awful racket as the Tin Man tried to struggle, but the herbs made him weak. "What the hell are you doing, Tavi?" He tried to struggle, but the Scarecrow was too strong.

"Your soul is the price for the flesh," he said, "It's not that I'm a bad man, but I've prepared a spell that will give me flesh and return Dorothy to Oz. I told you before that I'm willing to sacrifice everything for the flesh. Just the thought of Dorothy in my strong, meaty arms thrills me to no end."

"Even me? Your friend, Tavi? You're sacrificing my soul and our friendship for this?" The Tin Man asked.

"I think I already told you nothing will stand in my way of getting Dorothy back," he said, "You've given so much of yourself to the Wicked Witch that I thought I'd get what I can while the gettin' is good." He paused for a moment as Nick struggled with the restraints, and then said, "I never tried to make arrangements with Mary, the real Mary. No Munchkin woman would waste time with an abomination like you, Nick."

"What are you saying?" He asked.

"I've been conspiring with the Wicked Witch for a little over a year," he said with his countenance distorted. "She wanted your phallus and I wanted your soul." He paused for a moment, and then said, "Even the Princess of Oz chipped in to help take you down."

"But why?" He asked. "What good is my penis to her and why would the princess want to depose me?"

"I don't know and I don't care," he said, "The Wicked Witch can put it in a dehydrator, grind it up, and make a potion from it for all I care. I just want your soul, old friend." He smiled, and then said, "And as far as the Princess of Oz is concerned, she knows an organized army of Irons could easily take control of Oz with little to no pushback. The only way for a peaceful Oz is to have an ineffective king ruling over Winkie Land."

Nick lay quietly in his bed as Tavi wrote some markings on his head that he couldn't see. He dipped the pen in a bottle of red ink and made several markings on the King's head and chest. The constraints kept him from striking his old, traitorous friend. During all of this, Tavi hummed a song, an old song from Munchkin Country that praised Ptah and glorified their ancestors' work in the Celestial Kingdom.

It took the Scarecrow nearly fifteen minutes to draw the markings on Nick's forehead, and after he finished with that, he drew a pentagram on the ground that circled the entire bed. The Scarecrow stood in the circle at the edge of the bed and chanted for about an hour. The Tin Man prattled on how he'd regained his strength and end his old friend, Tavi Socrates, for his betrayal.

He repeated the chant so loud and hard that he nearly passed out by the end of the ceremony. When he dropped the book on the ground, he noticed his old friend glowing. A golden glow covered his entire body and then he started screaming like he was in pain. Suddenly, he dropped to the ground, by the bed, and then when he hopped to his feet, he was a man of flesh and bone. Tavi looked down at his meaty hands in astonishment, and then to verify that the process worked, he darted over to the vanity mirror just to see his fleshy body. The King watch on with an apathetic heart.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Three Days Later…

Nick stood bare in the middle of his chambers and his iron lost all its vitality, but his strength increased beyond anything he had experienced in the past. His eyes turned from a solid brown to a dark red. His arms looked like two oversized, metal weapons from a tank, but his brain was sharp and he remembered all the tactics he learned through the years. When he looked at his legs in the mirror, they were nothing but iron covered muscle. It was unlike anything he knew in the past. Whatever spell Tavi cast changed him on another level. He dressed in his old, iron battle garb, and prepared his mind for war. When he trotted to the weapons room on the basement floor, he realized he didn't feel anything for the plight of the Tins. He saw them as an infestation on his kingdom that needed to be eradicated. He no longer carried compassion in his heart for the different countries around him, including Munchkin Country. He saw them all as a threat to his fiefdom.

One tear fell out of his right eye, but it wasn't because he felt hate, happiness, compassion, or concern for what he planned on doing to the Tins. He cried because he didn't feel anything. It was like an emptiness had overtaken every essence of his heart and he didn't have any feelings for his enemies-or his friends. When he walked out of the arms room with his weapons attached on his shoulders and his military-style hoverboard, he gave the order to his field commanders to eradicate the Tins at every possible encounter.

"To let a Tin live is to let your kingdom die," The Tin Man screamed into his communicator. "Burn their villages, rape their women, kill their children, and sodomize their men. You will take all their belongings and leave them with not!"

One of his commanders, Ryan Stone replied, "We're Irons, not savages." The line went completely dead and it angered Nick. The thought of one of his commanders not carrying out his explicit orders caused him unmitigated rage. He flew to the southern part of Winkie Country, past the Irons, and directly into a village of Tins. He stood in front of a group of tin men who looked war-torn: broken arms, dented pots, and damaged weapons.

General Franklin Pewter, a Tin General, walked in front of his men, knelt to one knee, and said, "Lord, can you forgive the error of our ways?" He held out his right arm with the backside showing. It was an old tradition that dated back when Ptah forced Oriona to submit to his will in a ritual that usually had to do with marriage. In Oz, the gesture had morphed into begging for forgiveness as well as a mating ritual within the elite class of Munchkins. But when Nick saw him on his knees, he took it as a form of weakness. It disgusted him and he wanted to eradicate all the Tins in front of him.

"Bring your families to me," he said as he stood in front of a company of Tin soldiers. "So, they may hear their king's voice, so they may hear how I will unite our kingdom and bring the Tins to the table."

He saw the nervousness within the soldier's eyes, but it didn't matter because he was going to kill them regardless of their actions. As he stood on his hoverboard, the Tins looked back at him with leery eyes. They lumbered from their hovels and marched their families over to the Tin Man as he stood on his elite, military-style hoverboard. General Pewter walked to the front of the crowd, took a knee, and then said, "Have you forgiven us or should we prepare for the slaughter?"

The King stepped off his hoverboard, looked the General into his green eyes, and stated, "You've murdered hundreds of Irons, ravished the land, and sullied my name. What king would let you live with this betrayal?"

"But, Sir? You've neglected the needs of the Tins," he said calmly, "Did we not offer you the hand of Rachel Sterling so the Tins would feel like we had a member in the kingdom?"

The Tin Man pulled out his sword as the General knelt in front of him. He had the weapon by his side and it was made of steel. "When the Wicked Witch took the last of me, you subsequently tried to depose me. At what point did you start working with Tavi Socrates?"

"Right after we finished building your castle," he said, "He came to me with the..." Before the General finished his sentence, the Tin Man removed his head in front of his people. They all tried to attack him, but he was too strong and too fast. With his unstoppable willpower, he cut through the Tins and they didn't have the ability to evade his blade. Their silver blood covered his iron, but he kept slicing nonetheless. He didn't spare the women or the children, and when it came to his vengeance, he definitely didn't spare the men. He made the Tins throughout Oz, even the ones who didn't witness the slaughter, fear him.

When Ryan Stone arrived on the scene, he nearly fainted from all the silver blood running down the land. He looked over at the children, and screamed, "You're a monster!"

Nick laughed. "Monsters care, Commander," he said with a mischievous grin on his face. "I don't. Now, I order you to take all this tin and smelt it. I will wear the skin of my enemies as armor."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

December 11, 1908 (Oz)...

The Tin Man looked out over his land and watched as his knights practiced sword fighting on the pasture. The clink of the swords made him smile and hum a nice tune. The children raced around on small hoverboards and frolicked without any cares. The women made food for the community and they planned on having a December feast that honored Ptah. December was the month of Ptah in the ancient world, and all of Oz celebrated the god in some fashion, way, shape, or form, including the witches.

Emerald City sent a cease and desist order against Nick's encroachment onto their property. When he saw the order signed by the Princess of Oz, he laughed at it for a long time because he had every intention of attacking the city within the next week. He sent out nearly fifteen scouts to watch her knights as they practiced their battlefield tactics, and as far as he knew, most of her warriors were made of flesh or tin. With merely a quarter of his Irons, he knew the Princess' army wouldn't be a match for him.

Several witches of great power and resources joined forces with the Princess, but that didn't bother him. He knew with each spell came grave consequences, and for the hags to cast a spell to disrupt his plans, it would take the wind out of the Princess's kingdom. But at the same time, his scouts he sent to Winkie Country talked about seeing Dorothy Gale, and due to Nick's missing soul, he didn't care. He was so unattached from any emotions that he thought an attack on Tavi was a waste of time.

When he walked out to the lands, all of his knights hopped to their feet and didn't sit back down until the King sat. The last vestiges of Tins in the area worked as the help staff around the castle and fed all the knights a nice meal. Most of his staff were Tin women and docile; they didn't pose any threat to Nick's plans. But as one of the Tin staff poured him a glass of oil, he noticed she looked up at the sky. It was only a glance, but it was enough that it registered in his mind. He knew that she was the daughter of General Pewter, and he remembered that her name was Rhonda Pewter.

"Rhonda, should I be worried about something?" The Tin Man asked as he sipped his oil. He watched the Tin woman closely and her fiery eyes twitched a few times.

"What do you mean, my Lord?" She asked with a befuddled look on her countenance. It appeared to the Tin Man that she tried to smile, but worry quickly overtook her visage. "I simply poured you a cup of crude as you ordered."

The other knights stopped their petty chit chat and looked in the direction of the King, and from their visages, they obviously suspected him to gut the woman on the spot. It wasn't something he wouldn't do since he murdered almost her entire village a year earlier. "I sit here with my knights, out in the open." He looked up into the sunny sky and then said, "I suspect this is the optimum time to attack my kingdom. I mean our kingdom," he said as a correction and then motioned with his right arm in a circular motion. "If I see one blimp or a hag on a stick coming near my castle, I'll gut you first. How about that?"

"Yes, my Lord," she said as she backed away from the table. "Anything else I can do for you, my King?"

The Tin Man looked over the young woman for a moment and her fair countenance intrigued him. He didn't find the Tins naturally attractive, but Rhonda Pewter had a way about her that caught his eye. "Come to my chambers later. We can discuss this further."

Rhonda looked over at Ryan Stone with a frightful glare and he nodded to her ever so slightly, but Nick caught it all. The way his eyes fixed on her and the emotions he displayed all said to him that Ryan was in love with her. Nothing slipped past the Tin Man's eyes. "Yes, my Lord," she said as she scuttled off.

The Tin Man took another swig of his crude and listened to the mindless banter among his Iron Knights. A crew of Iron women began to dance around the table for the king's amusement. He tried to enjoy the togetherness, but it was hard without a soul. The only thoughts running through his brain were that of killing the Princess and taking control of Oz. The Tins brought a feast of unicorn meat to the table and the king was the first to tear off a piece of the flesh, dip it in his crude, and enjoy the taste. Once he tasted the dish, his knights tore off a piece of the flesh and did the same. It was a ritual of the Iron Knights to allow the king the first bite of the flesh before they partook.

An ominous wind pushed through the Iron Kingdom. It was an odd wind that made the Tin Man shiver. He looked into the distance and saw several small dots in the air; they must've been approximately eight miles away from his location. At first, he thought it was merely a flock of eagles, but after further investigation, he screamed, "Take cover!" Before he fully realized what was happening, a barrage of pumpkin bombs bombarded the kingdom and took out the northern half of his castle.

When he looked up into the sky, he saw several witches riding brooms with pumpkin bombs attached to them. One bomb carried enough power to level an entire building. When the witches flung several more bombs at his fortress, it leveled his castle completely, causing him to descend into madness. With anger in his heart, he leaped into the air and latched onto the rear of one of the broomsticks. It was a struggle for him to climb aboard the broom since it moved at a high rate of speed. Grabbing the hag by her orange hair, he shoved his right fist through her body and she made an awful gurgling sound in the process. Basically, he ripped the life right out of her as she commanded her broomstick, and death came almost instantly. When she fell off the broom, another witch ran into her body killing her instantly.

Thus far, every dead crone died by his own hand and that disturbed him because none of his Iron Knights had taken flight on their hoverboards. He rode on the hag's broomstick and circled around to attack the head witch. When he looked at her worn face, he knew it was the Wicked Witch of the West, and he wanted to pay her back for all the things she took from him. But when he flew close enough to grab her hair, a flock of birds hit him in the face, thus causing him to lose balance on the broom. He tumbled to the ground, into a pile of bushes, and laid on his back for a moment. Unfortunately, the witch was long gone back to the Emerald City and his castle was decimated.

That evening, the Tin Man roamed through the Iron Knight's encampment without saying a word. He was able to pull his hoverboard out of the demolition castle and ride it around the area looking for spies. Nearly two thousand Irons parked in the field around the smoldering rubble and dined on cups of oil. He watched his soldiers closely for any peculiarities that might lead him to believe they were disloyal, but he didn't notice anything at first. It was approximately nine o'clock in the evening when he realized one of his soldiers was missing: Ryan Stone. He looked all over the encampment and sent word to his officers that he wanted a meeting with him. At the same time, he noticed all of his Tins were missing too.

Angered, he knocked over several tints and threw a number of his soldiers to the ground. "Where the hell is Commander Stone?" He asked in an angry voice. He wobbled back and forth and kicked over some pots and pans, and then grabbed one of his soldiers by the throat. "Did you have anything to do with that attack on my kingdom?" He asked in a surly manner.

The soldier looked at his leader with fear in his eyes and said, "I'm an Iron and this is my kingdom too. I will never do anything to hurt it."

Gently, the Tin Man placed him on the ground and turned one hundred and eighty degrees to the rest of his troops who had gathered around him. "If you see Ryan Stone or the Tins, bring them to me," he said in a deep and rough voice. "I suspect they're the ones who tipped off the witches to our vulnerabilities."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Early in the morning, while the three moons were high in the sky, the Tin Man took a small contingent of Iron Knights and infiltrated Emerald City. It was empty, vacant, and the only thing moving along the golden path was loose paper twirling down the street. The aroma of peaches permeated through the streets, an ancient scent to let the righteous know Ptah was present. They rode into the metropolis loudly on their militaristic hoverboards with cannons and jet engines on them. The engines of the boards made a loud roar, enough power to shake every building in the vicinity. It was a beautiful city, a city that glowed bright green with fluorescent colors, but a strange city that Nick's grandfather once ruled. It had been a long time since the Tin Man visited his home, and as soon as he made his way to the palace, about twenty Tins greeted him aggressively.

They were hidden, the Tins, in the crevices and alleyways of Emerald City possibly waiting for the arrival of the Irons. The clink of their feet while walking was just as loud as the engines of the hoverboards, maybe even louder. He knew some Tins lived in Oz, but he wasn't sure in what capacity. For all he knew, they lived quietly on the fringes of the city but didn't partake in protecting the kingdom. The leader of the group of Tins had a round face, the face of a Munchkin, a face he knew well. In addition, his eyes were blue like the ocean water off the northern coast, but he was also drab, plain, and a bit dull in appearance.

"What business do you have here, Tin Man?" The leader of the Tins asked with his right hand firmly on his sword. "We can't let you go any farther by order of the Princess of Oz." He took a stance against Nick while he clenched his sword, but never removing it from its sheath.

Nick looked at him with his red eyes, and then pulled out his steel sword and sliced through the Tin's weak, tin-like body as if it were made of thread. He was merciless in his offensive. The speed in which he moved was unlike anything in the land. The power of magic flowed through his veins and his rage was a result of dispassion in every living creature. Due to his lack of soul, he killed without any love or concern for life. And as soon as he finished with the leader, he moved swiftly to take out the other Tins. Their screams of death were like music to him; it was what fed his rage. The more they screamed the more he chopped away at their bodies. He wasted all the Tins in a matter of minutes, and not one survived the slaughter. Their silver blood flew in every direction, but that didn't stop him from slashing them at every turn. The other Irons hadn't left the comfort of their hoverboards as their King slaughtered the Tins in a way that signified a joy of killing. In the background, the Emerald City Palace stood and the lights shined on Nick's carnage like he was center stage for the world to see. He knew the cameras atop the palace caught the bloodshed and he wanted the Princess of Oz to know her cousin was home.

"You bastards are worthless," Nick said as he stepped back onto his hoverboard. He looked back at his men with a scowl on his face, and then said, "Take some damn initiative for once."

"Lord, we knew you'd make shredded tin out of those Tins," one of his Iron Knights said, "It was a pleasure to watch you work your magic with a sword."

Moments later...

Nick walked up to the Emerald Palace, kicked open the large, wooden doors and stepped inside. He thought something was wrong since he wasn't met with any more resistance. He walked slowly down the dark, dank hallway in anticipation for an attack. Quickly, his men began clearing each room of the palace but didn't find the Princess. When he looked down the main hallway, he saw a sign that read, "Ptah Is Lord!" His grandfather had placed the sign on the wall when he was but a child.

From top to bottom, they checked for any signs of the Princess, but couldn't find anything. It wasn't until they traveled down the musty basement that they discovered two hags with immense powers. When the Iron Knights burst into the room, the two witches assumed a fighting stance. Their powerful magic turned their skin an avocado green and they had on their basic black witches attire. Once a witch's skin turned green, she was a force of nature that had the ability to change the properties of solid matter. One of the witches waved her hands and a rainbow color stream of energy came out of her fingers. The Tin Man stepped away from the glow, but two of his Iron Knights allowed the rainbow-colored glow to encompass their bodies. They absorbed all the energy and quickly turned into small, harmless frogs. It happened so fast that it caught the king off guard for a split second. But when he came to his senses, he rammed his sword through both of the witches' upper torsos and they died immediately. After wiping their red blood on his leg, he continued to march through each room on the lower decks.

Nick stood in the final room on the basement floor of the Emerald Palace and thought the Princess of Oz escaped. At first, he contemplated the entire time she tricked him into believing she left, but when he heard a whimper coming from underneath the floor, he ripped it up with his iron fingers. Pieces of wood and concrete flew into the air until he picked up a section of the floor that had the princess in it. She was laying down in the fetal position, shivering and scared. It had been a long time since he saw the fair-haired, sapphire woman and she looked the same, but frail and thin. From the way she smelled, he knew she had been hiding for some time. She was nervous. Her hands shook and she had a look of fear in her eyes. Quickly, he motioned to his soldiers to leave the room and they did.

He walked around the windowless room for a moment as the Princess of Oz stood in the middle of the rectangular space. It looked like a storage room with several old tables in it and some wooden crates stacked in the corner. In addition, a layer of dust set on everything, but the Tin Man didn't mind. The dim lights flickered and the Princess' had a fearful look on her sapphire visage. He saw her as nothing more than a scared child backed by a lot of power and an integrated army of flesh and Tins. But when he stormed into the Emerald City, he barely met any resistance, and he found that quite odd.

"Have your troops forsaken you, Princess?" The Tin Man asked as he stood in front of the diminutive woman. He stood nearly seven feet tall and she was only about five-foot something. He walked away from her for a second and then grunted. "We're from an old race of people, you and I." Pausing, he looked over at the crates and started to lumber in their direction. "My grandfather was your grandfather's brother."

"I know that our family is the Royals of this world," she said with a grimace. "But that doesn't give you the right to lay siege to my kingdom. Do you not rule over Winkie Land?"

He simpered for a moment. It wasn't a big smile, but a slight smile; it was just enough to show his silver teeth. "Did I not give you Emerald City to rule?" He asked.

"That you did," she said with a grimace, "And rule I have."

He walked over to her, placed his cold, iron hands on her face, and then said, "I extended an olive branch to you and then you shoved it in my face."

"What an olive branch?" She asked with a befuddled visage. "What the hell are you talking about, Nick?"

"The letter stating you were too good to rule by my side," he said with a scowl on his face. "We could've ruled all of Oz, you and I."

"Oh! I see," she said, "You received a letter and automatically thought I sent it?" She asked. "I didn't send you anything. Tavi Socrates told me you were amassing an army to attack Emerald City."

"Only after you attacked and destroyed my kingdom," he said.

"Attacked your kingdom?" She asked. "Emerald City is a peaceful place, Nick. Your grandfather ruled this kingdom nearly one hundred years ago and we never attacked other countries. Now that our family regained ownership of Emerald City, I can promise you that we aren't about that life."

Nick turned toward his cousin, and just as he attempted to speak, he saw Ryan Stone burst out one of the crates with a sword in his right hand. He moved swiftly through the air and tried to stab the Tin Man in the gut, but with a quick sidestep, Nick avoided the blade and punched the would-be assassin in the face. Due to his magical enhancements, he quickly snatched up Ryan and ripped his body in half. Oil from his severed torso leaked all over the floor and Ryan twitched for a moment before all the life left his body. But when he looked back at his cousin, she lay on the ground with the sword impaling her petite body. Gently, he picked up his childhood playmate, laid her on the table, and watched her as she lay dying. Her legs hung off the table and he stood between them as he pulled the sword out of her midsection. At the same time, his troops entered the room with a look of shock and awe on their faces, and then abruptly left.

It didn't take long for the Princess to die. In fact, it happened within minutes of him pulling the sword from her midsection. He hated the fact that he didn't have any genuine feelings for the tragic loss of his cousin. She wasn't the last, but she was the last that remotely mattered to him. Her lifeless body lay on the table, but the tears that he should've shed didn't happen. He stood in front of her searching for a crumb of pain, but nothing. He couldn't find anything to force one tear. He knew the magic of Tavi Socrates turned him into a monster.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

James lay on the cold, mushy ground, eyes opened, and pants around his ankles. The cool, morning air crept between his bare legs, and then he opened his eyes immediately, thinking about what was happening to him. The entire area smelled like old, rotting meat, and he didn't know about what was going on around him. Sliding his hands across his manly part caused him to realize he was completely nude. Quickly, he pulled up his trousers while he still lay on the soggy, cold ground, looked over at Tavi, and then stood to his feet. He felt the moisture in his underwear, so he reached in them and felt some wetness around his penis and knew he had been having sex at some point during the night. Using his x-ray vision, he searched for any other people in the area who might've raped him but didn't see any other lifeforms. However, he saw smaller footprints running up to and from his position, and at that point, he knew somebody had molested him. He automatically thought it was Tre'Yan Pitnick, the girl he first met when he arrived in Oz, but at the same time, he couldn't figure out why she'd be drugging and raping him. What would she stand to gain by such an action?

After about thirty minutes of James thoroughly searching the immediate area, Tavi hopped to his feet, brushed off his clothes, and then said, "Let's go?" For some reason, James thought he seemed more cheerful than any man should be so early in the morning. The rotisserie unicorn set unattended over some smoldering logs of wood, but the stench in the area had pretty much smothered the aroma of the good smelling meat.

James looked over at him for a moment as Tavi continued to brush off his pants and hum a song he didn't recognize. He was eager to find out what he knew about the previous night. "Did you see anybody else in the area last night?" James asked as he grabbed his backpack. He studied Tavi to make sure he didn't detect any deception in his facial expressions.

"I didn't see anything at all," he said with a stern look on his face. "It was an uneventful night, the kind of night where you just dream, dream, and dream. I didn't wake up one time. No, sir. Not me."

When they resumed their journey down the road, he thought for a moment and remembered he tried to run from the mist, but it consumed him and caused him to pass out on the ground. It wasn't a natural sleep, but a somber brought on by a powerful drug. He knew that much. As they walked down the road, he turned, looked back at their campsite and saw the half-eaten unicorn meat hanging over the smoldering wood, but didn't worry about it. There was enough dew on the ground and moisture in the air that he thought it would burn out naturally. James was hungry, but they didn't eat anymore of the meat because of the hideous, rotten flesh smell that permeated through the area. He reached into his backpack, pulled out the sandwiches that Tre'Yan made, threw them on the ground, and continued to march down the road.

"I feel somebody is watching us," James quipped as they meandered through the strange and rustic land. It felt like fall. The cool air, the orange leaves on the trees, and the blackbirds careening through the air all made it feel like autumn, and James truly enjoyed the scenery while disturbed by the predator that kept sexually assaulting him. The only reasons the deadly, acid-spitting bugs didn't attack the blackbirds was because of the creatures' ability to adapt to the environment: the bugs won't fly below fifty feet. But only a day earlier, everything seemed like the middle of the summer in Oz, at least in Munchkin Country, but now that they were in Gillikins Country, the grass and trees all turned to autumn colors. It was beautiful and almost majestic, and then as they traveled down the road, a family in a hovercar flew past them with purple skin. It was a quiet conveyance: roof down, fins on the back, and enough room for at least eight, full-sized men. James smiled at them and they honked their horn, a rudimentary way the Gillikins showed respect.

He didn't know anything about Tavi or who might've raped him, but his trust level was near zero. In fact, he didn't know anything about Oz at all, and the old story he read as a child wasn't the reality he was now experiencing. He felt uneasy regarding his predicament. The only thing he had in his favor was his artificially enhanced, Kryptonian abilities, but at the same time, he didn't know if his madness would flare up again. One of the side-effects from the Superman formula was uncontrolled rage, and if not for JJ, he'd have gone insane because of the formula. When he experienced fits of rage, JJ usually knew how to calm him down with his abilities. Unfortunately, now James was a thousand light-years from Earth and he didn't have a clue if he'd ever see his planet again.

"Oz is a strange place with strange creatures," Tavi said with a smile. He looked back at his companion for a moment and then said, "The best people are the Munchkins; they've been on this world for nearly two million years. But at the same time, this world is a prison inside a bigger prison created by the Great Ptah. At least that's how I heard the story. If you're not a Munchkin, then you're probably a prisoner of the Speed Force. The greatest Munchkin who ever lived was Ku Klip. Some people say he's still alive, bearing a curse for killing a god or something like that."

"Damn!" James exclaimed. He was looking down at the ground with his hands behind his back. A cool breeze blew through the air that had a bit of a chill to it, but he didn't mind. "So the Irons and the Tins are all from other worlds?"

"They came from a people who tried to manipulate space and time nearly a million years ago. A race of people called The Timekeepers banished them here when they discovered their plot," he said with a grimace, "But I've been studying the Speed Force for a while. I think there are ways to manipulate time and go virtually unnoticed. We can slide back through time ten, twenty, thirty, or a million years if we know how to evade the checks and balances of this magnificence energy that stretches throughout space and time."

"Why would you want to do that?" James asked calmly, "Wouldn't you risk changing things?"

Tavi laughed. "I'd do anything to have Dorothy Gale back by my side," he said with a smile, "Before I messed everything up, we were the perfect couple."

Quickly, James and Tavi walked into the Rolling Land, a small kingdom with The Shaggy Man, Metal Mike, as the king. The vegetation in the area was a majestic purple that grew everywhere. In the distance, they saw several fields of booshi trees with the delicious fruit growing in abundance. "What kind of trees are those?" James asked as he peered down the hill to the lovely trees with its purple fruit hanging low.

"It's a fruit we often use to make some of the finest wines in the world," he said, "Or even in the galaxy if you want to know the truth. The booshi fruit is the only thing that never evolved. It's the same fruit that existed on this world nearly two million years ago."

"How do you know?" James asked.

"'Cause the ancient Munchkins who called themselves the Trilobites in those days wrote about the fruit all the time. The only thing they talked about more than the fruit was living with Ptah in the Celestial Kingdom. They believe when they die that they'll return to the Celestial Kingdom to live and work for him." Tavi talked for a while about the fruit and James listened carefully. He then discussed the ruler of the Rolling Land for a moment, and said, "Metal Mike was a gold miner in the Northern mines and was able to secure himself a small fortune over the last fifty years."

"Is he loyal to the Tin Man?" James asked calmly. He wanted to know if he could make any allies in the Land of Oz to take down the metal monstrosity who ran the world with a ruthless hand.

"Allies and enemies can be the same person in the badlands of Oz, but the Tin Man doesn't have many allies because of his locusts. They hurt the economy by keeping everything confined to land travel," he said with a grimace. "Metal Mike is an Iron who desires profit over everything else and those locusts hurt profit." They walked through the area quietly, but Tavi wanted some freshly cooked unicorn meat because the smell permeated throughout the area. "I have a hankering for something to eat," he said with a smile on his face. "It's nothing like rotisserie unicorn meat like the citizens of Rolling Land makes."

They wandered into the Kingdom of the Rolling Land and James immediately noticed the iron castle that set in the rear of the community. It was a humongous building with a large, iron figure on the front of the steeple. For about two minutes, he looked at the statue, and at first, he thought it must've been an image of Metal Mike. But when he looked closer, it was a statue that resembled JJ, but it had snake-like hair.

"Is that a statue of Ptah?" He asked as he pointed to the castle.

"Indeed," Tavi said, "The Metals worshiped Ptah on their world and made a statue of him while he was still in his youth." He paused for a moment, and then said, "But the Munchkins have a much smaller statues of the god when he's about two million years old."

"Why the differences in statues?" James asked.

"The Metals worship the Ptah who loved Oriona with all his heart," he said, "The one who dreamed of the perfect verse."

"The Munchkins worship the Ptah who adheres to the law," he said, "The one who strikes down those who break them."

After the old Scarecrow finished talking about the statues, they came across an older vendor with thinning, gray hair. And when James walked up to the man, he was busy shaving off another layer of meat to use to make another round of sandwiches. "What can I get you, son?" The man asked. He continued to shave off the meat, place it on a pan, and then fix sandwiches.

"Two sandwiches and two drinks?" James replied, "It really smells good."

The man giggled, and said, "It's nothing like my sandwiches, son." He started to fix the sandwiches until he looked up from his work and saw Tavi. As soon as their eyes met, he pulled out a machete from underneath his cart and tried to strike the Scarecrow. Quickly, James moved to the side, grabbed the man by the back of the neck, and shook him one, incredibly hard time; It was such a jolt that the man passed out and hit the edge of the table. James looked back at Tavi, and then asked, "Do you know this guy?"

"Um…! Let's get out of here," Tavi said. James looked in the other direction and a crowd of people ran their way. Before he had a chance to see if the man was okay, the crowd already had them surrounded. "Listen, guys? He attacked…"

"Shut up, Tavi Socrates!" One of the angry men exclaimed. It surprised James that the stranger knew Tavi.

"Let me through!" An Iron on the golden hoverboard said.

"Let the king through," the angry man said, "Let him see the thief."

The King stepped off his hoverboard, picked up Tavi, and held him by the neck. The sound of his neck popping made James nervous, and then he screamed, "Put him down!"

The King, Metal Mike, looked directly at James with his silver eyes, and then threw Tavi to the ground. "Who are you to speak to me?" He asked as he towered over James.

"James Olsen," he said calmly. "From Earth."

The crowd of people, metals and flesh, gasped when he said Earth. "Where Dorothy Gale lived?" He asked.

"The same," he said, "I was brought here by accident."

"Accident?" He asked. He walked up to James, and then said, "You've made another accident by running with this scoundrel," he said as he pointed at Tavi. The entire crowd laughed for a moment until the King said, "Quiet!" He walked over to the Scarecrow, grabbed him by the back of his neck, and looked him deep into his eyes. Suddenly, Tavi kicked the monarch in his left knee and it caused him to drop him to the ground. Several of the Irons grabbed Tavi and began trying to beat him until James knocked them all back with one clap of his hands together. It sent a shockwave that caused all the carts and people to fly backward.

"Great, Ptah!" The King exclaimed as he hopped back up to his feet. "You have powers like the Tin Man!"

James looked at the King, and then said, "The Tin Man tried to kill the Munchkins. I'm now heading to Winkie Country for the Magic Ax so I can stop him from trying to hurt the Munchkins again."

The King looked at him for a moment, and then said, "The Tin Man's locusts have caused me so many troubles. I can't make a decent profit off my wine because of him. If you do take him out, I'll pay you your weight in gold."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

James and Tavi ambulated through Gillikin Country for two more hours until they took a bathroom break near the Sheer Mountains where the dragons lived. The ferocious beasts lived deep, down in the caverns of the mountain and usually surfaced at night to feed on wild unicorns. In the lower lands-at the bottom of the mountain-stood the Yoops, a group of balloon-like creatures according to Tavi that warned all outsiders to stay away. The Sheer Mountains stood approximately three thousand feet and was highly vegetated with trees that stood over three hundred feet.

But when it came to the dragons, they worried James. He didn't like the idea of legions of dragons spewing out of the caves trying to eat him, but Tavi had plenty of stories about them. He called them, "Serpenti Terram. They're a deadly creature with the ability to fly, but can't withstand the onslaught of the acid spitting locust that live in the trees. We refer to them as ground serpents because the locusts grounded them like all the creatures on Oz."

"It's obvious the locusts are the deadliest creatures on the planet," James said as a matter of factly. "Hold on a second? I have to use the bathroom." He jettisoned to the other side of the mountain, near a large sycamore tree that concealed his business. The sycamore must have stood higher than three hundred feet in the air. And when he looked up into the wooden structure, it was infested with the deadly locusts. They hung upside down and didn't seem to mind James' presence on the mountain. They attached themselves to the limbs of the tree that were at the fifty feet mark or higher.

Suddenly, the silver orb flew out of his backpack and it startled him. "What the hell?" He asked. An image of JJ appeared. He was wearing all black with his hair pulled back in a ponytail. In addition, he had on his usual gothic paint and a long, black trench coat with the collar up in the air. Orion set on his right shoulder.

"James, the Orb of Destruction only has a few minutes of life left. I'm sending this message to warn you that in four days the Speed Force will release you. If you don't know, you're in a world called Ozario, a deadly planet with alien creatures the Speed Force imprisoned. Be leery of everybody in that world." The transmission began to flicker because the orb was losing power. "When I placed the orb in your bag, I saw an alien woman straddling you during the night. She's a time…" Abruptly, the power went off on the orb and the recording stopped.

"Dammit," James said as he tried to figure out the last of the message. But at the same time, the fact that JJ knew where he was gave him some relief. At first, he thought he might be stuck on Oz forever, but if JJ knew about it, he had faith the kid would find a way to save him. When he finished urinating on the large, sycamore tree, he heard Tavi screamed.

"James, help me?" He screamed. In an instant, he flew to Tavi and about six dragons surrounded him. "It's still daylight."

Gradually, they walked backward away from the large, green creatures as they snarled and grunted. One of the dragons whipped its tail around to strike the duo, but James picked Tavi up and cradled him in his arms. He took off running at nearly four hundred miles per hour until they stood on the edge of Winkie Country. He ran so fast that the dragons couldn't keep up with him, but as soon as he stepped into the land of yellows, he met several, tall silver men that Tavi called, "The Tins."

Most of the vegetation looked like blades of gold and the town resembled a bustling city with people floating around on hoverboards. It looked like a modern city. And when they entered into the metropolis, they checked in at the front gate called the Golden Arches. On the entranceway, it read, "The Tin Man Is Your King." It had a picture of the metal monstrosity at the entranceway and James stared at it for a moment. "He's little stuck on himself," he said.

When the guard saw Tavi, he screamed, "Fugitive!" Quickly, the seven-foot guard of silver struck Tavi in the face and he flew back into the wall. By the time James turned to see what was happening, the guard had already shackled the man. "The King ordered you arrested on the spot."

Tavi looked at the Tin for a moment, and then said, "This man can wield the enchanted ax and kill the Tin Man." He looked at the guard directly in his face and then nodded at James. "He's like the Kryptonians of the old tales when the Speed Force was young." James stepped up to the Tin and stuck out his chest for a moment.

The guard laughed, looked at James, and then said, "The Kryptonians are no more. How can you be of this race when the Oans blew up their world thousands of years ago?"

"But I've been enhanced with the same formula that made them great," James said with a grimace. "Injected by the Harold to the Destroyer."

The silver man walked up to James, and then said, "Even if I thought you could defeat the king, I wouldn't trust you when I see you running with this miscreant, Tavi Socrates."

"All I know is if we don't depose the king, he'll kill more innocent people and continue to control the skies with his acid-spitting locusts." He stood in front of the Tin and watched him closely. James knew if he could move past the front gate that he could retrieve the enchanted ax, and then defeat the Tin Man. "It's time to act or forever be a slave to the Tin Man."

The guard looked over at Tavi, and then said, "I know I'm making a mistake." He took off the Scarecrow's shackles, placed them in his back pocket, and then waved them through.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Emerald City …

After the Princess of Oz passed, a rumor circulated that Nick raped her with his metal phallus, and when he first heard about the vicious lie, he killed two innocent Tin Knights and accused them of spreading a dirty fallacy to undermine his kingdom. As the soldiers stood near the entrance to the castle, he asked them who spread the rumor. Ishtar, the dragon, swam in the moat and shot steam out of its nose. Nick looked over at the animal, smiled, and for a moment, appeared soft in his demeanor. It was like he forgot he was questioning the two, unaware Tins. But then out of nowhere, his visage changed to a scowl, and he asked, "Who told you I raped Ozma? Where did this rumor start?" His sharp teeth were on display and the fear on the guards' faces was palpable.

Immediately, the Tins popped to the position of attention and their hands shook out of fear. It was obvious they fretted about what the Tin Man might do in his anger like most people of Oz did. "King! I know not of this rumor," one of the Tins said as he trembled in fear. He tapped his comrade for confirmation and his hands trembled uncontrollably. "We've been loyal to you since you took over Emerald City, sir. We see you as a descendant of Ptah."

"That's correct," he said with a grimace. "My ancestors came to this rock over a million years ago, and they were the forsaken children of Ptah." He pulled out his sword, held it by his side for a moment, and then said, "And Ozma was of the same lineage. So, know your rumor not only disrespects her memory, but it disrespects my god," he screamed as he began slicing the innocent Tins with his steel sword. He removed their heads and they leaked out all their oil directly in front of him.

Due to all the betrayal in Oz, he knew he had a porous kingdom, a kingdom ripe for the raping, and if he didn't close every hole and expose every traitor, they would dethrone him. He didn't actually know how the rumor started, but he thought it had to do when the knights who saw him trying to revive the Princess of Oz on the table.

After his cousin died, he sent several spies to Munchkin Country who reported back that Dorothy Gale and Tavi engaged in a romantic pose near the old tarn that set on the outside of the city; they sent a video feed to the Tin Man of the couple making love under the three moons of Oz. The biggest satellite was aptly named after Ptah while the next moon was named after Orion, and when it came to the smallest of the three moons, the ancient Trilobites named it Brigi Sora Es Ro'Dan Vi Ptah or the Ro'Dan, the forgotten lover of Ptah. The smallest moon set apart from the other two moons, which looked like the real couple.

Nick watched Tavi and Dorothy engaged in coitus in the video, and it caused him dismay. The fact that the scarecrow had a semblance of happiness after what he did anger him. He thought for a moment on how he could make his old friend suffer, but all he could think about was his three-headed dragon. He kept the beast in his dungeon and had his servants gather tons of corn in huge barrels every week. They would set the corn outside the dragon's cage, but never tried to feed him themselves; it wasn't allowed. He took in the animal because its mother shunned him for its deformities. And in Nick's mind, he felt akin to the creature because he considered his metal extremities deformities too. He was no longer a Munchkin or flesh, but iron with the tin coverings of his enemies, a freak of nature. He took the three-headed beast from his home in the mountains a year earlier and brought him to Winkie Country, and with his hands, fed the creature the corn it craved. Nick saw him as being unique, a creature unlike any other creature on Oz. Every day the Tin Man fed the pitiful creature and it grew into a ferocious predator. The monster grew bigger and stronger than the average dragons and it loved the taste of corn and fresh unicorn meat. It also loved Nick. He named the massive creature Randolph the Killer, but he called him Randolph for short.

Since Nick hated Tavi with a passion, he thought of ways to make his life miserable. The traitor lived in Munchkin Country on a nice farm that overlooked several acres of rich, ripe fields capable of growing the bluest corn in Oz. He wanted to take all of Tavi's happiness for betraying the kingdom so he had his Iron Knights place Randolph the Killer in the tarn down the road from Tavi's abode. He knew it took nearly two tons of food every week to keep the creature fed and happy, and if he didn't receive his daily ration of corn, he'd eat livestock, unicorns, or even Munchkins. He took solace in knowing the three-headed dragon's rapine of the corn and wildlife would leave the entire area famished.

After nine months of Dorothy Gale's return to Oz, the Tin Man ordered the construction of a new Iron Castle, and an entire infrastructure built around it. During the planning phase of the new city, he had forgotten about Tavi and Dorothy for a moment. In addition, the Wicked Witch of the West-for a certain period of time stayed in her lair and didn't bother him, so it gave him plenty of time to see the first iron towers built in Winkie Country. He sat on the outskirts of his kingdom, overlooking the construction with a Tin maid named Shauna Copper. She was a brownish metal with long, golden hair, long eyelashes, and a curvy metal body. Every few moments, she'd ask him, "Do you want another glass of fresh crude?"

"No, dear," he'd say as he looked onward. But when he finally did tap his glass for another smidgen of crude, he noticed Tavi walking to the old, witch's den on the far side of the city. He knew Tavi's gait, the annoying way he leaned to the right side. Drinking down his crude, he wiped his face, and then said, "I could kill him right now and the world wouldn't miss him." The Tin Man grabbed his hoverboard, pushed Shauna to the side, and took off down the hill. It didn't take him long to catch up with the traitor.

Nick stepped off his hoverboard with his steel sword by his side. He must've envisioned himself slicing Tavi in half a thousand times, but at the same time, he wanted to know how his old friend could be so petty.

Grimacing, Nick looked him directly in his beady eyes. "I should behead you right now for the world to see, traitor," The Tin Man said. He pointed his sword directly into the man's face, but he didn't flinch. He looked at the tip of the sword and continued to smile at Nick.

"If I thought you were a threat, I wouldn't have walked straight through your kingdom, Nick," he said as he began walking past the Tin Man. He even bumped into him.

Quickly, Nick turned to Tavi, tried to take a swing, but his fist bounced off an invisible shield. It caused his entire body to vibrate. "What in the hell?" Nick asked.

"When I took your soul, I also took your ability to harm me," he said, "I'm protected by magic and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it, old friend." He turned to Nick, and then said, "I'm going to see the witches so they can heal me of my affliction."

"What affliction is that?" He asked with a grimace, "Guilt for stealing my soul?"

Tavi laughed for a moment, and then said, "No. Your soul was worth the flesh." He wiped his mouth, and then looked him directly in the face. "I'm not able to get Dorothy pregnant," he said, "I don't think my little swimmers are swimming. At least not in the right direction."

Nick shook his head in disbelief and then said, "I'm sure you're fully human, Tavi. If the price was my soul, I'm sure your phallus works perfectly. But when I find a way to break this spell, I will kill you. I promise you that much. And if I can't kill you, then I will kill what you love."

"Keep dreaming," he said.

A week later…

After he drank a cup of crude, Nick engaged in relations with Shauna Copper. He placed her brownish, metal bar across the bed and straddled her from behind. The fact that he couldn't feel her metal against his steel phallus nearly drove him mad. It was a curse on top of a curse, and all he wanted to do was tear out the heart of the wicked witch who slighted him, the very one who took his limbs and phallus. But as Shauna sat up in the bed, he treated her to a dinner of different oils made with the booshi fruit; then he walked outside on the veranda and watched the emerald aura above the mountains, but he was angry because he couldn't feel love. The emptiness in his soul grew like an uncontrolled fire, and every time he tried to feel something, the hollowness defeated him. But to be honest, Nick wondered if he could have ruled with such ferocity with a soul, and as he stood quietly on the veranda and ruminated, he saw a legion of witches blacken the emerald sky. He watched as the hens flew toward his kingdom; he knew the day would come when they would destroy his home. He realized from the last assault on his palace that he had to prepare against the powerful witches. It was a harpy who turned him from a Munchkin into Iron, and no matter what, he hated them. He hated them all.

Due to the defensive measures Nick put in place, the attack on his kingdom was one of his wishes, a moment of catharsis, a justice his mind so badly needed. The hags dotted the sky, and when they began their descent on Nick's empire, he unleashed the first wave of locust. He had them stored underground in a bunker, cared for by the Royal Scientist, Theodore Windue. And when he screamed, "Incoming," the first bunker door slid backward and the deadly bugs consumed hundreds of witches within minutes.

Nick listened to their pleads of mercy, but he had a gadget on his right wrist that angered the locust when he pushed it. It made the beasts more aggressive, and once they took flight, they would scour the sky and render it inhabitable. After the locusts defended the kingdom, he found out that the monsters killed the Wicked Witch of the West. It was the best news he had received since he assumed power.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

The Enchanted Ax lived with the Children of Ptah, a powerful witches coven north of Winkie City; they held onto the precious ax to find a wielder who would one day battle against the evil and soulless Tin Man. The Children of Ptah spent over seventy years taking care of the enchanted ax-creating an entire religion around its powers. It was easy for them to make their way to the majestic, witches coven that set on the far mountain in Winkie Country. The coven set apart from all the advance technology that ran Iron City, and when it came to the Children of Ptah, they had their own technology that was far superior to the generators that ran Emerald City. It was a wonderful place, clean air, and the members of the group sat on the front lawn singing.

James and Tavi walked up to the witch who sat at the front of the coven, and according to him, her name was Serena Ra, ancestor of Ptah, and keeper of the Enchanted Ax. She was a Munchkin, a tall, sapphire woman who looked strong and healthy. She wore a fiery robe with a hood on her head. The other women wore sapphire robes too; it was all harmonious.

Due to the power of the ax, James knew it wasn't going to be easy obtaining it, but when he walked up the catwalk toward the coven, he saw the golden statue of Ptah in front of the building. When he walked over to it, Tavi said, "This is one of the oldest statues on the planet. It dates back nearly two million years."

The statues had circular discs on either shoulder and when James saw that, he knew it was Orion and Veo. "Have Orion and Veo always been with Ptah?"

"Yes," Serena said as she walked over to them; she stood almost as tall as James and had a svelte frame from what he could tell. Her robe broke up the outline of her body, but James could see she was like the Royals. The rest of the coven stood behind her and assumed a v-shaped formation. "Ptah sends his blessings. We've been waiting for your arrival."

James listened to the leader of the coven speak, and she had a soft, pleasant voice, but a commanding voice. But when she said, "Ptah sends his blessings," he thought she meant in spirit at first. Then out of nowhere, another silver orb flew overhead and spoke. "James, the power in this orb only has about two minutes of life left," JJ said, "What do you need from my children?"

"The Enchanted Ax," he said with a smile. The entire crowd of witches gasped. "It will give me the ability to pierce the Tin Man's armor and rip out his heart."

"Lord, the ax is our only refuge from the Tin Man's reach," Serena said with a scowl on her face. "If he comes near it, it'll rip out his heart. It was forged out of the strongest metal in the known verse and energized with temporal radiation and enchanted with the magic from seven covens. "

"The ax is the only way to defeat the Tin Man and protect the Munchkins from his insidious plans," James said, "Tavi tells me these Munchkins use to be called Trilobites and descendants of yours."

"What?" JJ asked. "My descendants?"

"Serena, this is Orion," she said, "Give James the ax to carry out the mission against the Tin Man."

"My descendants? What is he talking about, Orion?" JJ asked. James could tell that his friend was agitated.

"Transmission over," Orion said.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

JJ walked around the warehouse for a minute, angry and agitated at his First. She flew behind him, demanding that he speak to her.

"JJ? Talk to me? Dammit!" She exclaimed. He leaned against the wall for a moment and looked at his First with anger in his eyes. The idea that she kept his children from him tore at his soul; it was like raking him across a million sticker bushes. Since he received his memories from the Neuronet, he no longer saw Orion as the flying disc that followed behind him, but in his mind, she was his first wife. He called her his First. "JJ? Say something dammit?" She asked. It was obvious that she was agitated with him and he knew it too.

Peppermint continued to sleep on the couch and Vera and Veo lay on the floor on the other side of the room sleeping. They had been practicing on fighting techniques for hours and he wore her out so she fell asleep on the cold, hard floor. It was late and JJ knew he should've already been asleep, but he needed to get another message to James on Oz when he revealed the Munchkins claimed to be descendants of Ptah.

"Are you just going to play the quiet game all freaking night?" She asked. "Nothing ever changes with you does it?"

It was obvious that James' revelation about the Munchkins being his descendants upset him badly; it was an aspect of his life he didn't know about at all. He couldn't fathom that he fathered the Munchkins, an old race of Trilobites who lived on Oz. Just the idea of anybody from the realm of gods fathering a child with a lower life form like the Trilobites was forbidden. Ro'Dan hadn't gone through any kind of apotheosis before the advent of the Speed Force. For some reason, he didn't detect that he might've had something to do with that race. There were laws that old gods abided by concerning mating, and to impregnate a Trilobite was the highest of all sins.

Unfortunately, he didn't know anything about his kids with Ro'Dan and Orion had not informed him that he had children with her, at least not with her while she was in her Trilobite form. In the later years after he found her in the Speed Force, she had become a powerful Succubus, a godlike creature with powers far beyond that of the lowly Trilobites. The energies within the entity had turned her from a Trilobite to a goddess and made the union between them lawful. When he retrieved his memories from the Neuronet, it didn't have anything in them about his children with Ro'Dan and that disturbed him. He feared to ask his First what else she left out of the Neuronet's memory banks.

"What did you want me to do, JJ?" She asked as she flew around him for a moment. "You broke the laws of the gods by carrying on a relationship with her for nearly sixty years. If you had known about these kids, you would've been obligated to kill them and Ro'Dan, JJ. The same way the Great Father killed Veo and me on Dora. You had a harem of Trilobite women to choose from, but you kept going back to Ro'Dan. I warned you to break it off," she said with a stressed tone. "I warned you."

For a brief second, he snarled at his first love, but she was right. If he had known she was pregnant, he would've terminated the pregnancy. He then said, "Do you know exactly why I kept her so close to me?" Placing his hands on either side of her casing, he brought her into him and placed his forehead against her metal armor. It was the way he always showed affection for her.

"Don't remind me?" She said softly, "I gave her to you as a gift, but I didn't know you'd fall in love with her. That's why I did what I did." She paused for a moment and then said, "I know you loved Ro'Dan so I hid the children from you so you wouldn't be burdened with carrying out the law. When she disappeared in the Speed Force, your oldest child was fifteen and the youngest was ten. All they wanted was to find their mother."

"What were their names?" He asked softly.

"Po'Darro, Bri'Ogdon, and Vo'Dax," she said.

"Named after the original Trilobites?" He asked softly. "Ro'Dan was always respectful of the originals.".

"That's correct. She thought giving them honorable names was a way to venerate you. They entered the Speed Force ten years after you left and started a life and family on Thanagar. You now had a new family and a new race to nurture. Ro'Dan was of no concern to you." He sat on the floor on the opposite side of the room from Veo, and then Orion said, "They were strong kids, JJ. Like their father. All they wanted to do was find their momma in the Speed Force."

"I know now," he said with a grimace. He was heartbroken by the events that took place nearly two million years earlier. "It's not that I didn't care about Ro'Dan. I think we need to make that clear right now. All of the women through the years that held your conscience was loved by me. I treated them like goddesses. Every one of them, Orion. I thought the Speed Force killed her. I assumed the cosmic forces ripped her body to shreds." He wiped the tears from his eyes, and then said, "I didn't know the radioactive energies would change her into the Succubus. It pains me so much that she didn't reciprocate my love when I retrieved her from the Speed Force twenty thousand years later. I'm not even sure she recognized me at first."

"Those were dark days," Orion said, "Days when the loneliness nearly drove you mad. Now, all of Oz is populated with your blood. It's obvious by the amount of magic in Oz that vestiges of your DNA exist within the Munchkins. Look at the witches with powerful magic? They often sit in seats of royalty."

JJ sat in the corner of the warehouse with Orion hovering directly in front of him. It was approximately two o'clock in the morning and he had to be at school in a few hours. But for some reason, the knowledge that he obtained from Serena about the Tin Man baffled him. Even in his younger years, he knew magic always had unforeseen repercussions, affecting people closest to the wielder. She told him the Tin Man killed a multitude of people through the years: witches, the Tins, some Munchkins, and the Princess of Oz.

"It appears the Tin Man was victimized by the people he called friends," JJ said as he looked across the floor at Peppermint breastfeeding his son. "If Serena is correct, this means he did all this without a soul."

"Interesting," Orion said, "This also means he hasn't truly processed all the death and destruction he caused. He kills and feels nothing."

"It's unfortunate that he ruled over Oz without a soul, but if I restored his soul like I did Sue's, the flood of pain and emotion would make him suicidal. I recalled doing this several times in the past."

"Perhaps that's best," she said, "Sometimes a person's actions are so egregious that death is the best solution for them. But at the same time, how much of this metal machine is still Munchkin?"

"If he still has a head, then what does it matter? I will go to Oz and see this world," he said calmly, "This way I can better understand what we're dealing with." He paused for a second, and then said, "What about the man who took his soul for personal gain?" He asked with a grimace. "It seems shameful that he would get away scot-free." Quickly, he ran over to his work station and Orion followed closely behind him. When he turned back to Orion, he said, "Why did Tavi betray the Tin Man according to Serena?"

"For the love of the flesh," she said, "He wanted to become flesh for Dorothy. Everything he did was for Dorothy."

JJ laid his forehead on the edge of the desk and then Peppermint asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's James," he said, "He's in serious danger." He had already figured out the Enchanted Ax had more value than merely penetrating the Tin Man's armor and it made him nervous. Due to James enhanced powers, he knew nobody could simply hurt him, but the Enchanted Ax could.

"Elaborate?" Orion asked.

"According to Serena, the Enchanted Ax is built with temporal radiation," he said, "That means it has properties that will allow for time travel if hooked to the right machinery."

"So you believe he'll kill James for the ax?" Peppermint asked.

"Yeah," he said with a grimace. "It's the power of the magic. It won't penetrate his skin, but a blow from it could wound him mortally." He paused for a moment, and then said, "He'll use it to go back before he lost Dorothy, but he'll need a spacecraft."

"The Speed Force keeps a memory of everything that takes place," Orion said, "We have the ability to access the recordings, but all the equipment is on the Phantom."

"It's been two hundred thousand years since we've flown the Phantom," Peppermint said, "Is it even functional?"

"If not, we need to put it back in operation," JJ said, "In a few years, we'll be leaving this rock." Veo flew over to him with Vera walking behind him. He said directly to his son, "I need Victory to head to Central Africa."

"What's the mission?" He asked.

"I need the Phantom up and running and I need you to retrieve the Telegenic Speed Force Communicator, " he said, "Consult with Orion for the location and frequency of the force field around the entryway to the Celestial Kingdom."

"Yes, father," he said, "Will Vera be coming?"

"Of course," he said, "When I said Victory has a mission, it meant you two." He pointed back and forth to Vera and Veo.

"JJ, Tre'Yan's ship would be the engine needed to help Tavi traverse time," Orion said, "But it still doesn't explain why she raped James in the middle of that field."

JJ folded his arms in front of his body, and then asked, "Could it have been just about the sex?"

Peppermint scoffed, and then asked, "Isn't she from Vega Star?"

"Yeah," Orion said, "And they always have an ulterior motive for every move they make. She would have wanted the sex, but I bet she wanted his enhanced semen. The Superman formula changed him on a genetic level."

"If she broke out of the Speed Force with a half Kryptonian baby, he could easily rule over Moxia and Vega Star by the time he reaches eighteen," he said, "Orion, start working on the equation for me to enter the Speed Force."

"So, you're going to enter in that World even though you haven't had your apotheosis?" She asked.

"I should be okay," he said calmly.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

Nick and Shauna sat by the moat, fed Ishtar a meal of fresh fish and drank crude smoothies made by the Royal Staff. He held her close to him, but it was all an act for the citizens of Emerald City because Nick didn't have feelings for her. He was indifferent, and he knew it was because of Tavi's spell. Daily, he thought about what he'd do to his old friend if given half a chance. Unfortunately, the spell Tavi cast kept Nick from strangling him on sight, and that still bothered him two years after he found out about it.

The Iron City where the Irons and Tins lived was a great metropolis in Winkie City with a mono-train that ran directly over the castle. The entire track that went over the city was only about thirty-five feet in the air and the castle set directly underneath it. The track stretched from Winkie City, over to Emerald City, and all the way down to Munchkin Country. The Irons and Tins built the cities, but the Irons lived in luxury while the Tins barely scraped by. And when it came to Emerald City, lights filled the night sky and an amusement park called Tin Land set on the fringes of the robust metropolis; it housed thousands of party-goers on its compound daily and the Tins worked the grounds for next to nothing; it was slave labor. On the east corner of the ground stood a chapel called Ptah's House where the Tin Man worshipped with the Irons. The Tins weren't allowed to worship in Ptah's House; they worshipped in an old barn on the south end of the compound.

Nick noticed Shauna gave him a look, a look that pretty much stated she felt uncomfortable about some things in their relationship. He knew he had been going through the motions with her, but it didn't have to do with her at all; he saw Shauna as a beautiful, copper-colored woman. Even though he could see her beauty with his eyes, he was incapable of enjoying her with his heart. He didn't have any emotional attachment to her at all, and no matter how much he wanted it, he couldn't move past his lack of empathy.

"In the name of Ptah, Nick, just have the Royal Scientist put some nerve endings in your phallus," she said as she drank her crude. "At least you'd feel something." He looked over at her for a moment with a serious countenance.

"When did it become your job to tell me what to do with my penis?" He asked. "I supply you with the best crude in all of Oz. Be thankful."

"Don't take a tone with me when all I want is for you to feel some joy in this cruel world," she said, "Have I not been faithfully by your side since you started wearing the skin of the Tins?" She asked. The mono-train moved swiftly over the kingdom, and then she said, "It's the littlest thing you can do is go to your witches and have them give you your soul back. What's that Munchkin witch's name? Serena Ra?"

Nick gulped down his crude and looked out over his kingdom at the same time. "Serena is powerful," he said, "But she's not powerful enough to restore a soul. Only Ptah can do such a thing." He paused for a moment, and then said, "I murdered tens of thousands of Tins in only a few years. I killed some of them without provocation. I felt nothing when I did it. My soul would only be an impediment at this point."

She smirked for a moment, and then said, "I fear not even Ptah would forgive you for what you've done to the Tins. I never liked them because of their uppity ways." She paused for a moment and tapped her fingers on her chair. "Even I find your brutalization of them the most savage thing in Ozarion history. Maybe one day Ptah will come for his lost children and restore your soul. Maybe it'll kill you. Maybe it'll give you a moment of peace knowing you'd have a place in the Celestial Kingdom."

"To kneel and submit to Ptah is the only being who deserves my submission. We're inside the prison he created for the gods, but I still believe one day he'll return and restore our souls to the Neuronet. But this is only the dream, Shauna. I've never done anything to deserve his grace. I'll never walk the halls of the Celestial Kingdom. I'll never know that peace because of the evil that lives inside of me."

Shauna turned sharply in her chair and asked, "Is that Dorothy Gale?" Standing to her feet, she looked over the banister at the young woman walking down the path to the kingdom. "Such a foolish child, Nick."

The Tin Man rose to his feet and grabbed his hoverboard, and swooshed then down to Dorothy Gale.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

Nick took Dorothy into his reading room, a room where he stored the history of Oz in thousands upon thousands of books. He had his Tins organize the room with a copy of every book ever written on Oz, including an ancient text called, "The Laws of the Witches," written by Bri'Ogdon La, Ptah's daughter with Ro'Dan. She mixed potions and medicines that helped heal the wounds of the Munchkins through the years. And when it came to his sacred books, he didn't easily allow anybody to see the room. In fact, Dorothy was the first person, outside of the Tins who organized the room, to be in it.

"It's good to see you, Nick," she said smilingly. "Tavi and I have hit a roadblock in our relationship."

"You've been back in Oz for two years and this is the first time coming to see me?" He asked calmly.

"It's not like that," she said, "For some reason, I was caught up in the magic of Tavi." She paused for a moment, and then said, "And just like that, the spell was broken. He told me he was off to make our relationship better, but when he returned, I felt he was being unfaithful."

"He went to the witches for a spell so you could get pregnant," he said, "He thought it was his fault."

She covered her mouth, and then said, "I'm barren. A cruel doctor tore out my insides with a hanger a long time ago. I was about thirteen." Nick began laughing, and then he laughed louder. "What's so funny?"

"Tavi stole my soul for a woman who can't reproduce? How could this happen?" Asked Nick as he stood akimbo in front of her.

"It's not really a laughing matter," she said with a grimace. "I did a terrible thing in those days." She walked over to one of the study-tables, pulled out the chair, and sat for a moment. "My Uncle Henry became enraged when he found out I was with child. I was so busy being sick that I couldn't think straight."

"What happened?" Nick asked as he listened to his old friend. In some ways, he pitied the girl as she told her story.

She fiddled with her hands while she spoke, and from what he could tell, she had an insidious nature about her. When they went on their adventure years earlier, he didn't see her connivances the way he did now. "I don't know why I chose to protect Zeke," she said, "He was the father of the child, but I still liked him. And I just knew if Uncle Henry found out Zeke fathered the baby, he'd have him run out of town."

"So, what did you tell him?" Nick asked.

"I told him Julian Olsen raped me," she said, "It was so easy to lie because everybody wanted to believe the lie. The Olsens were a wealthy nigger family and all the whites owed them money. So, my lie precipitated Julian's lynching and voided all the contracts because Uncle Henry burned down their store. I thought I'd feel dismayed watching that nigger burn, but I didn't. It brought me such joy when my Uncle Henry gave me dibs to cut off the first body part. It was a communal act. I'd go first, and then the next person would cut off a piece."

He could hardly believe what she was saying, and then he asked, "What part did you take as a trophy?"

She smiled. "I walked up to him as his lifeless body hung from that old, oak tree on the fringes of Uncle Henry's property and took his penis. The crowd cheered as I clipped it off with the shears. I held it up for all the people to see, and one of the men screamed, 'That nigger will never rape another white woman!' The Olsens were uppity. Got what they deserved as far as I'm concerned."

Nick looked at her for a moment, and her face was worn, lips dry, and hair thinning, but it was because her story changed his perception of her. She no longer had the glow she carried when she arrived in Oz the first time. He viewed her as an innocent in the early days. But now with the current revelation, he knew Tavi and her belonged together. She was no better than the evil witch who stole his phallus. "When did you lose your soul?" He asked.

"My Uncle Henry taught me my predatory nature," she said with a grimace. "I saw an opportunity to free my family from their debt. Not a court in the world would prosecute me for it."

All of a sudden, Nick grabbed Dorothy by the throat, threw her face-first on the table, and tore off her panties. Due to his powerful metal arms, she was incapable of moving once he snatched her up. She wore a dress that went past her knees and it made accessing her private area easy. When she told him the story from her past, it caused him nothing but pure rage.

"Tavi set me up so the Wicked Witch could steal my phallus," he said, "The only way to bring him pain is to kill you."

"What are you doing, Nick?" She screamed, "I thought we were friends!" He didn't feel anything for her, but the reason he didn't feel was because of Tavi. As far as he was concerned, he wasn't born a sociopath but made through the machinations of the people he called friends. At first, she screamed loudly as he penetrated her violently, but by the time he finished, she was dead. The Tin Man snuffed out Dorothy's life, he raped her on the study-table, the last atrocity between Nick and Tavi was thrown.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

August 25, 2019

The morning air was full of moisture; it had a bite to it, a sauna type of heat that had everybody sweating. The three moons stood high in the sky and gave off enough light to see all the action. The tension between Nick and Shauna was palpable by all the soldiers. Shauna Cooper stood by the Tin Man's side as he floated through the ranks of Tins and Irons on his military-style hoverboard; he inspected his thousand-man army of Irons and Tins, and gave his men time to retrieve the provisions needed for the genocidal attack on the Munchkins. He wore his battle dress uniform with the laser resistant vest and two laser pistols on each hip. The military campaign against his people, something he avoided for nearly one hundred years, could not be justified in his logical mind, but he didn't care. He wanted revenge for all his losses. Ridding Oz of Ptah's descendants almost seemed like a pious duty, and it was only because they lived a life he couldn't, a life with love and empathy.

"You've avoided this very confrontation with the Munchkins for all these years, Nick," Shauna said with a serious countenance. He looked over at her, snarled, and continued to wait for his men to return with the right equipment. "You haven't told me why the change of heart. Did they do something to you? Did they hurt your pride?"

He didn't like her words, but he replied anyway. "They sent in a warrior to stand against me, a man of great speed and strength," he said, "I defeated him easily, and then they had the nerve to deny my demands for more crops." He floated slowly on his hoverboard with Shauna standing with him. She held the rank of a General.

"But this is unnecessary," she said, "By the powers of Ptah, let his people be. Allow your soldiers to go back to bed, be with their families, and stop this madness for you anger our Lord." She paused for a moment, and then touched his right hand. "I talked to Serena Ra," she said, "The leader of the Children of Ptah."

"About what?" He asked with a grimace.

"About things of the soul," she said, "About you. You didn't defeat that Munchkin's champion like you think you did. He refused to fight because the battle would've decimated the village and hurt its people. After you left, he got up. He took a beating for Ptah's people, Nick. Think about that?"

He smirked. "Nobody could get up from those kinds of blows," he said.

"Serena gave him the Enchanted Ax," she said, "Ptah gave his blessings. If you attack the Munchkins, not only will this James Olsen kill you, but you'd spit in the face of Ptah. And I won't stand by your side if you do that. The Munchkins are Ptah's people. You're Ptah's people."

He scoffed. "How dare you tell me my god doesn't approve of my actions? I am the king of all of Oz! This is sedition."

"Not only does Ptah disapprove of your actions, but Serena told me he will come to Oz to tell you personally he doesn't like what you're doing," she snapped, "As your general and lover, stop this madness."

Nick looked at Shauna for a moment in her battle dress uniform. Colonel Tye-ee-tin flew up to him at a slow pace. The Tin Man looked over at Colonel Tye-ee-tin, and said, "Place General Copper under arrest for sedition. Remove her weapons and armor."

"But, sir?" Colonel Tye-ee-tin asked.

"Obey your King," General Copper said as she removed her gear. She then turned to Nick, and said, "As my lover, don't do this, Nick? This attack on the Munchkins will be your undoing!"

"Take her away, Colonel," he said calmly. Placing his hands behind his back as he floated on his hoverboard, he shook his head in disbelief. "Of all the people, I never thought you'd betray me, General." He looked directly in her eyes, and then said, "I'll deal with you when I return."

Nick already made plans of what would happen to the land once he eradicated the nearly ten thousand Munchkins from Munchkin Country. He didn't care that James Olsen still lived because he knew he had more power and strength than him. He looked back at his Iron and Tin soldiers as they mounted their hoverboards and began the trek to Munchkin Country.

Meanwhile on Earth…

The Phantom blackened the sky over National City; it stretched over a mile and was as wide as two football fields. It had a protective, emerald field around it that was a shield against weapon attacks of all types. It was an old ship, but one of the fastest in the universe. But when it entered Earth's atmosphere, the entire world went on alert and scrambled their fighter planes. He had a radio in his ear and could hear all the different organizations going on alert. Even though the ship had the ability to cloak itself, he wanted the world to see it in the hopes humanity would understand alien weapons and worlds of immense power existed in the universe. He wanted humanity to come together and learn civility.

The Vulcan and his family entered the ship and the Trilobites kneeled on their right knees, left arms extended, and said, "We submit to you, O' Lord. We welcome your return, Great Ptah." It had been a long time since anybody had saluted him in the manner of Orion. When she was a Siren over five million years earlier, she gave herself to him in that manner, and due to the Trilobites documenting his life, the gesture was written in the ancient text shared throughout the universe.

"I'm happy to be back," he said. He looked at the Captain's name tag, and it read Po'Deek. "Did Veo give you the coordinance for the exact planet we'll be visiting in the Speed Force, Captain?"

"Yes, Lord Ptah," he said, "We've done our initial calculations and prepared the ship for the onslaught of acid-filled locusts."

"Very good," he said, "Peppermint, let's prepare."

When he walked over to the main viewer screen with his wife, Victory stepped up from the rear of the room. "It appears we have several fighter planes headed this way, Vulcan."

"Send them a message telling them this is my vessel," he said, "We'll be leaving National City's air space in approximately thirty minutes. I have to do my basic, safety checks before we depart." He looked over at Captain Po'Deek, and then said, "Ionize the ship's hull, Captain?"

"Yes, Lord," he said, "Ionizing the hull."

For a few moments, the Vulcan studied the controls on the main panel, but as he went over the weapon systems on the ship, he sensed Superman and Supergirl outside the vessel. He placed them on the viewer, and then asked, "What?"

"Wait? Vulcan is that you?" Supergirl asked, "What's all this?"

"Yeah. It's me," he said, "We're going to get James in my ancient ship the Phantom. Could you tell the fighter planes to turn back so we can leave?" He asked. "I don't want anybody getting hurt."

"Will do," Superman said, "Be safe."

"Bring our friend home," Supergirl said, "We miss him."

Munchkin Country…

James Olsen and Tavi Socrates gathered up all the people in the village who wanted to fight. They took everybody who could fire a laser rifle, and when it came to the weapons in the Munchkin community, they had plenty. With his superspeed, he raced through the forest, knocked down several trees, and made a barrier around the town. He stacked them deeply and then created a fighting trench with his superspeed and super strength. He tossed over a ton of dirt around the barriers and left a large fighting position in front of the barricade.

He received word from Serena Ra that the Tin Man and his army was on their way, but James felt he was ready for him. He carried the Enchanted Ax on his right hip for safekeeping because it was the only thing between winning and losing. The Munchkins stood behind the barrier with their rifles at the ready and Mary made sure they all were functioning.

"Mister Olsen, the weapons look good," she said, "My soldiers are ready."

"Thank you, Mary," he said as he walked the line with Tavi Socrates. He looked in the eyes of some of the Munchkins and they looked worried about the attack. "It's obvious war is something new to the Munchkins," he said, "I feel like I brought this."

Tavi chuckled for a moment. "It's not you," he said, "Tempers have been brewing on Oz for years now." He looked over at James, and then replied, "You're holding on to that ax like you gave birth to it," Tavi said as they walked around the barrier. It came off as kind of strange to James, but he tried to ignore his insecurities about the man.

James laughed. "Without this weapon, the Tin Man would overpower me," he said, "He's stronger than some of the greatest heroes on my world." It was true because he was struck by Kara and Peppermint, and when they hit him, it hurt pretty badly, but he felt Nick was a tad stronger.

"I've looked at this fortress of wood that you built and it's amazing," he said with a grimace, "But Nick built Iron City with his hands in a week. The Irons and Tins decorated it, but he did the heavy lifting. You are strong, James, but Nick possesses the best magic in Oz."

He had been in the city for approximately three days and spent most of his time with Tre'Yan Pitnick in her farmhouse; she prepared a nice meal for him and they made love twice under the three moons of Ozario. The aroma of peaches reverberated throughout the area and some of the Munchkins claimed it was a sign from Ptah. But when he made love to Tre'Yan, she burned a small fire with wood soaked in some kind of peach-flavored oil.

"When you fight the Tin Man, all of Oz will be on your side," she said as she laid her head on James' chest. They were in the middle of the field between her cottage and the Munchkin village, and the aroma of the oil-soaked wood permeated throughout the entire area. The unicorns grazed near a large, blue booshi tree and ate the fruit. "Including the Tins," she said.

"The Tins?" He asked with a grimace. Tracing the outline of her pointy, left ear, he gently kissed her on the forehead.

Tre'Yan smiled, and then said, "He killed thousands of them, smelted them, and wears them like armor. Tavi told me how he slaughtered them without provocation."

"What kind of man is this Tin Man?" He asked.

"Not a man, but a Munchkin and descendant of Ptah. He's a god in his own right imbued by the power of magic," she said, "When he lost his soul, he gained strength beyond anything in this world. Ptah built the Speed Force to imprison the gods. Everybody here has powers, latent, inactive or active."

Testing the barricade, he made sure everything was tied down perfectly. Mary walked up to him, and said, "Thank you for doing this."

"It's nothing," he said with a grimace. "JJ and Orion will eventually come here."

She smiled, and then said, "I believe you. I've never felt Ptah's presence like I do now. No matter what, I have faith he'll save us if all else fails."

James smiled and then paused for a moment to listen to the engines roaring in the wind. The rumbling of the hoverboards made a ferocious roar, but it was so far away that the other people couldn't hear it. It was the early morning and the three moons stood high in the sky. "The Tin Man's army is close," he said loudly, "Take your positions."

Mary fell to her knees, clasped her hands together, and said, "Lord Ptah, please protect your children from Nick and his army?"

Quickly, James, Tavi, and a thousand Munchkins ran in front of the barricade of wood that stood in front of the village. He saw the hoverboards approaching his position when Tre'Yan appeared by his side. It caught him by surprise because he didn't realize she was in the village. Carrying her laser rifle, she said, "We're depending on you, James. If you defeat him, it will be a better tomorrow for Oz."

"I'll keep fighting until he retreats or I'm dead," James said with a grimace.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty-Six

"Look at the fortress?" Nick said to his men as they stopped the fleet about two hundred yards from the Munchkin village. "This James Olsen thinks he can challenge me!" His arms were folded in front of his body as he looked across the way at the enemy fleet. Due to the earthling's interference, he had a snarl on his face because he despised him.

"If he carries Ptah's blessing, then he will be a formidable opponent," Colonel Tye-ee-tin said, "If we attack the Munchkins, we can't un-attack them. We'll anger our god." He knew exactly what the Colonel meant with his continuous warnings about attacking the Munchkins, but he didn't care now. There was a time in his life when he'd have given his life for them, but not now.

"If you don't carry out my commands, Colonel, I will slaughter you right here, right now," he snapped.

"I will do as I'm told, but I think we can unite the kingdoms with peace instead of war," he said, "For the love Ptah, my King. We are better than this."

Nick smirked, skewed countenance, and then said, "Peace was never an option. For my kingdom to move into Winkie Country, I must eliminate the Munchkins." He turned to his troops as they stood on their hoverboards, and then as he turned his head again, he saw General Copper out of his peripheral vision. "I told you to arrest the General."

"'I tried to obey you," Colonel Tye-ee-tin said, "But the General is my wife's sister. How can I carry out an order I disagree with?" He pulled off his emblem, threw it on the ground, and started floating toward the Munchkin's side on his hoverboard. "I'll serve with the Munchkins because I know Ptah's blessings will be bountiful."

"Colonel Tye-ee-tin, wait?" General Copper screamed. She threw her emblem on the ground in front of Nick, and then said, "I'd rather die on the side of the righteous and give my life for Ptah's people, then to be your General and lover. Your cruelty knows no end."

"Traitors!" He exclaimed. "Who else wants to fight me for Ptah's people?" He asked. The Tins and the Irons looked at each other and then half of the Tin Man's army followed the General. "I see. It's clear to me now." Due to his people losing faith in him, he knew he'd have to challenge James Olsen, and slaughter him for all of Oz to see.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The Tin Man floated carefully across the damp field of sapphire clovers by himself; he looked directly at James Olsen as he stood across from him in his silver uniform and scoffed. He examined the earthling's face, the eyes penetrating and round, but serious and narrow, the cheekbones defined and ferocious. The three moons were starting to descend and the two suns were hanging low in the east; it was a good day to kill he thought. "James Olsen, this fight is between you and me," he said in a gritty voice. "You wanted to be the champion of the Munchkins. Well, your time has come, Mister Olsen. This time I won't leave until I mount your head for all of Oz to see."

"I accept your challenge," James said as he flew over to Nick. He remained upright the entire time when he glided to the middle of the field. "Now that we're in the open, I'll be more than happy to rip your iron limbs off your body and beat you with them."

The sound of his voice antagonized him like an annoying twig beating against the front window of an old house. When the earthling stepped in front of Nick, the two armies stood quietly. He looked back at his men as they stood at attention on their military-style hoverboards. The Tin Man stepped off his hoverboard, walked over to James, and then said, "You've chosen to be the champion of the Munchkins, a decision that will end you."

"They're good people," James said with a grimace. "If I do die, then I die for what's good in this world."

The Tin Man looked over his opponent for a moment, studying, and vying for the best time to attack the earthling. The energy of his loyal followers behind, and the sounds of the wind blowing against his tin, he prepared to attack James. "I guess the Olsen name is synonymous with the pawn," said the Tin Man laughingly. The idea of calmness created an atmosphere of peace, and Nick knew the serenity before the turbulence would throw off his earthling enemy.

"What do you mean?" James asked with a grimace on his face, "Nobody knows what happened to my Great Great Uncle."

"Dorothy Gale was responsible for your Great Great Uncle's death," he said calmly, "She claimed he raped her." With his words, he hoped to confuse the man with the ability to run like the god Hermes, but at the same time, he knew his words might backfire; it was a risk he had to take.

"How do you know this?" He asked, "Nobody knows what happened."

"She told me," he snapped, "She was a sociopath. A man named Zeke impregnated her but blamed your Great Great Uncle for the crime. At any point, she could have told the truth, but she didn't. The town's people took your Great Great Uncle and hung him from an old oak tree on Dorothy's uncle's property. After they hung him and burned his poor body, she took his penis as a trophy. Such a savage girl that Dorothy was."

"You'll say anything to win," James said, "Surely, my ancestors would have spread word of this madness."

"Pawns are always the last to know, James," he said with a grimace, "Needlessly sacrificing it all for people who couldn't possibly care for them. Why would you give your life for Ptah's people?"

"Because it's the right thing to do," he snapped, "Ptah will enter this world, strip you of your metal, and kingdom. You'll be nothing if you hurt one hair of his people."

Nick laughed; it was a hardy laugh, the kind of laugh that had an insidious intention behind it. But at the same time, James words made the Munchkin in Nick think. "So you believe Ptah is on Earth?" He asked.

"He is," James said calmly, "His light went into a young man…"

Nick held his right hand up in the air, and James immediately stopped talking. He then smiled, and said, "For Ptah to be on Earth means your world is coming to an end. You're here fighting for a people you don't know when you should be on Earth changing the hearts and minds of its people." He looked at the earthling for a moment and then attacked him with a barrage of punches and kicks. When he connected with James' right chin, it caused him to fly across the field. "How can something good come from a planet that's being judged?" Nick paused for a moment, and smiled, "You must be the litmus test? You must be the one being judged? Your failure is the failure of humankind." Nick leaped through the air under the power of his iron legs, landed on top of James, and put his knee in his chest. With a right blow to the Tin Man's left side, the iron monstrosity flew into the air, and then James flew up in the air after him and hit him with all his strength. The locusts came after Nick as he ascended up into the sky, and before he had a chance to try to control them, they attacked his armor, spewing acid all over him. By the time he hit the ground, his iron skin was on fire. He rolled around in the grass for a moment and threw dirt on his chest. When he looked over at James, he saw him raising his hands to the crowd and bowing.

"I fight for the Munchkin people not because of a test, but it's who I am," James said as he pointed at Nick laying on the ground with steam coming off his body. "I'd be damned if I let the strong prey on the weak, Tin Man."

Olsen stood across the field from him, raised his hands to the crowd, and then bowed repeatedly. It angered Nick. He took his braggadocious behavior as a slight, and then he quickly realized the earthling's antics threw him off balance. He ran toward the earthling at mock two, tackled him, and then threw him to the ground. He tried his best to beat James with a series of right hooks to the ribs. As the rolled around, the earthling held the Enchanted Ax over his head, and it came down over the Tin Man's heart. It made a metal against metal sound, but it penetrated his armor.

"Help me, Ptah?" Nick screamed as he rolled around on the ground with black crude flying into the air. Nick rolled over on his back, watched the earthling stand over him, and then he heard the crowd screaming.

"Kill him!" Tavi said from across the way. "It's the only way the Munchkins can be free."

"I won't kill him," James said, "I know there's something good left."

Nick looked up at the earthing as the two suns slowly rose in the sky. "The Enchanted Ax is a piece of the original spacecraft that took the Trilobites to Oz. Not only is it a weapon, but a device that can traverse time."

Suddenly, Tavi walked up to James, grabbed the ax, and then hit him in the chest with it. The blow caused the earthling to fall to the ground because nothing could withstand a direct blow from temporal metal. He then hopped on top of James and beat him with the ax. The blows from the temporal metal cracked his skull, and in a matter of minutes, the earthling would be dead.

"It's obvious this James Olsen trusted you a little too much," Nick said, "Why did you do that?" He watched James take his last breath as the old Scarecrow stood over him breathing loudly.

"Does it matter?" He asked with a grimace. "You're on your deathbed too, but if you must know, I can use this Enchanted Ax to get my Dorothy back." The Tin Man began coughing loudly as the lifeforce escaped his body, and then out of nowhere, a cold wind brushed up against his face and Tavi no longer had the ax. "What the hell?" Tavi asked.

Tre'Yan Pitnick appeared out of nowhere, and then Nick said, "I knew you were a speedster."

She looked down at James' body, and said, "I never told you to kill him, Tavi." Her face turned into an awful scowl while Tavi smiled.

"What does it matter?" He asked. "Just send me back through time so I can be with my Dorothy?"

"What does it matter?" She asked with a grimace. "I told you he was personal friends with Ptah. Did I not say that?"

"Yeah. But I didn't think you meant with Ptah Ptah," he said, "Ptah is a myth. Something of fairy tales."

She pressed the ax against her forehead for a moment, and then said, "Ptah, forgive me for what I must do?" She looked up at Tavi, threw the ax at him, and it stuck into his forehead.

Nick shouted. "I wanted to do that!" He then fell over to his right side and began coughing again.

"Watch your mouth," she said as she walked over to Tavi's body. "I told him not to hurt James Olsen for any reason, Nick. I didn't stutter." She took the ax and decapitated him in front of the Tin Man, tossed his head on the ground, and then kicked it across the field. "I must use this weapon to go back in time to save my Prince," she said, "There's a great war on Moxia because of his murder nearly six years ago. The war has the potential to spill over into Vega Star and Brion Noir."

"You tried to go back and save him, didn't you?" Nick asked. "That's why you're here."

"Yes," she said, "But a shifty Lantern named Eli Ga'Narian stood in my way."

Suddenly, Nick smelled the aroma of fresh peaches. He tried to turn to his left and then to his right but he didn't see anything. "Do you smell him?" He asked. The entire sky blackened, and when he looked up in the air, he said, "It's the Phantom. It's Ptah's ship."

"This can't be," she said with a grimace. "Is it really Ptah?"

The Phantom's side hatched opened, and four beings descended out of the ship. Next, to the tall man with long, black hair, a black hole opened, and all the locusts flew inside. When the bugs saw the hole, they gravitated to it, but the man and his family continued on their descent. When he walked over to James' body, he began to cry, and it was at that very moment that his hair took the form of snakes. They slithered all over his head, watching Nick closely.

"You're Ptah?" Nick said as the man held onto James. "Your hair formed into snakes as a way to show your pain."

"That is true," he said, "My name on Earth is the Vulcan and James is a dear friend, Nick." He looked back at Tre'Yan, and then said, "Tre'Yan, I can't allow you to leave this world with the ax. But I will reduce your sentence. With my ship, I can alter your prison term from life to only one year. I'll give you one additional year in this world, but you have to give up the ax peacefully."

When Orion flew out of The Vulcan's backpack, Tre'Yan immediately fell to one knee. "Great Ptah, I didn't think it was you until I saw Orion."

"Hand over the ax," Orion ordered, "We're giving you a gift. We're also heading to Moxia to intervene in the Civil War before it bleeds into Vega Star and Brion Noir."

"Victory, take our comrade back to the ship?" The Vulcan said, "Revive him."

"Yes, sir," she said.

The Vulcan turned to Nick with the snakes slithering and hissing on his head, and as the Tin Man lay dying, a tear fell down his right cheek. "Nick, I see your soul," the Vulcan said, "It stands about a foot behind you." Nick looked around for a moment but didn't see anything.

"I don't see anything, Lord," he said with a calm visage.

"It has seen all your evil deeds," he said, "It suffers and when I reintegrate it back into you, it will be overwhelming. You might not be able to withstand the pain." The Vulcan stepped directly in front of the Tin Man, and when he pointed his right index finger at the metal monstrosity, he floated in the air. Suddenly, his limbs detached from his body and Nick began to scream loudly. His left arm flew into the air first and landed on the ground near the Munchkins and soldiers near the barrier. When he went to tear off his right arm, he saw Tre'Yan take off at super speed, but he waved his left hand, and she stood directly in front of him.

"That's not a good idea," Orion said, "If you want freedom, you'll do as you're told."

"Yes, ma'am," she said as she knelt to one knee.

The Vulcan tore all of his limbs off his body and all he had left was a torso and a head, and then when he went to touch the body, a woman's scream came from the crowd of soldiers. He turned to see what was happening, and a copper-colored soldier with a laser rifle shot Ptah. It happened so fast that it caused him to fall to one knee, and then his wife fired a blue ball of energy out of her right hand and it stayed in mid-air without going anywhere.

"It's okay, Peppermint," Ptah said with a smile. "She doesn't know it's me. She thinks I'm hurting her king." With the wave of his right hand, the energy ball disappeared and then Ptah flew over to the copper-colored woman. When he returned, he had her around the waist and landed directly in front of Nick. "I'm turning Nick back into the Munchkin he's supposed to be," he said.

"It's okay, Shauna," Nick said.

"But what of the kingdom, Lord Ptah? What will become of us?" She asked.

"It's for the people to decide," he said. Ptah grabbed Nick around the waist and golden energy engulfed both of them. Quickly, his limbs began to grow, and within several minutes, he was whole.


End file.
